Class Sf} Z Sia 
Book__>ijl_ 

DOBELL COLLECTION 



GLEANINGS 

ON 

HOETICULTUliE. 



GLEANINGS 



ON 



HORTICULTURE. 



BY 

OSWALD MOSLEY. 



LONDON: 
3Pvtntrti fof 33"l>atc Civrulattou, 

BY SAVILL AND EDWARDS, CHANDOS STREET, 
COVENT GARDEN. 

1851. 



A BTOICH OF CAJTOjr MAI.IL MBSCAT OKAFES. 





-J 



205449 
'13 



DEDICATION. 



TO 

JAMES B. WILDMAN, ESQ. 

CHILIIAM CASTLE, NEAR CANTERBURY. 



My dear Christian Friend, 

Having been requested to publish the foUowiu^ 
Notes, for the benefit of yourself and other lovers of Horti- 
culture, you must permit me to make a few preliminary re- 
marks. I am indebted to C. Mcintosh's useful publication, to 
Mr. G. Flemming's, Mr. R. Errington's, and Mr. Beaton's Notes 
in several scientific works, such as The Cottage Gardener, Tlic 
Gardener's Chronicle, &c., for the chief information that I have 
gleaned; and may the perusal direct our thoughts to the great 
Giver of every good and perfect gift. 

How bountiful are the blessings with which our Heavenly 
Father crowns Horticultural knowledge : I love to trace His 
hand in everything, particularly in beautiful Flowers and 
Fruit; and to place implicit confidence in Him who removes 
all anxious care from every heart that loves Him supremely. 
The climate of our dear native country requires us to exercise 
ingenuity in contriving plans to counteract the prejudicial effects 



vi 



DEDICATION. 



which changeable seasons have on plants imported from warmer 
climes; and since glass has become so cheap, we are left without 
excuse, if we do not avail ourselves of this gi'eat boon. Every 
reasonable want, of either flowers or fruit, may now be supplied 
by the erection of hothouses, greenhouses, or (as Mr. Rivers 
has called them) ' orchard houses ;' and all anxiety about anti- 
cipated ills may be removed at a small expense. One of the 
latter I have recently built, and introduced Warner's Conserva- 
tory Boiler and four-inch pipes into it, that it may serve the 
purpose of propagating plants, and forcing strawberries, French 
beans, &c., at an early period of the year. By this means, an 
excellent and certain supply of apricots, pears, cherries, &c., is 
produced one month earlier than the usual period. Such suc- 
cess have I experienced, that I feel justified in considering God's 
past goodness to me as a pledge of His help for the future. It 
is with pleasure that I shall comply with your wishes and those 
of my horticultural friends, who are interested in this short 
publication; and begging you to pardon the numerous errors 
which you will doubtless discover, believe me, in those bonds of 
Christian love which can never be severed. 

My dear Sir, 

Yours ever faithfully, 

Oswald Mosley. 

Chancellor House, 

Tunhridge Wells, Kent. 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



ON THE 

TREATMENT OF VINES IN HOTHOUSES, 

Grizzly Frontignac Vines should be enclosed on all sides in 
solid brickwork, keeping the roots always moist, but never wet. 
A good brick drain, with a fall of six inches, to take away the 
water immediately, is indispensable; and apertures should be 
left towards the border, filled with broken bricks and whole 
bones; or it should be drained every four feet apart with two- 
inch pipes, in order that there may be no impediment to the 
exit of the water. It is requisite to test these drains and pipes 
every autumn ; by cutting a hole of some depth in the border, 
and by leaving it open a few days, it will be ascertained if any 
stoppage has taken place. The area in which the Grizzly 
Frontignac Vines will flourish, should be three feet below the 
level of the surface, the bottom being brickwork, well-jointed 
with cement or mortar, prepared with river sand, or paved with 
Yorkshire flag-stones. 

The side walls should be four inches and a half in thickness, 
and built a brick higher than the surrounding soil. Divide the 
area into as many portions, or breadths, as shall be equal to the 
number of vines intended to be planted: say, four feet apart, and 
six feet long ; by which means the roots of each vine are kept 
separate. 

When planting young vines, a piece of cloth, or flannel soaked 
in soapsuds, should be bound round the ball with packthread ; 
the roots will quickly penetrate through it in all directions. 
The proper situation is under the ccnti-e of a light; the main 
stem and all the branches will then enjoy the full power of the 
sun. The roots should be laid in six inches below the surface, 



8 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



and be well mulched with rotten dung; they will then strike 
upwards, and produce fine well-ripened grapes in three years, 
and a good supply of vigorous rods as future wood in the current 
year. A vine stem should measure three inches in girt before it 
is suffered to ripen any fruit ; for every pound-weight of grapes 
cut from a vine before the stem is grown to this thickness, will 
deprive you of ten pounds in future years.* 

My borders are composed of old mortar, smashed and whole 
bones, charcoal, bricks broken about the size of a walnut, 
chopped turf, rotten dung, and leaf mould, in equal portions. 
No flowers or vegetables should be grown on the borders ; and 
during the heat of summer, they should be forked over, and 
liquid manure copiously applied every fortnight, as beneficial 
to the roots, causing pipers (or small fibres), which produce the 
fruit ; and preventing the berries from shanking. 

Slowness of growth is the first step towards the production of 
good bearing wood, and this point should be aimed at by ex- 
posing the shoots during their growth to the greatest possible 
amount of light and heat. These all-powerful agents will check 
the too rapid growth of the shoots, and thereby produce short- 
jointed wood; and the buds will be large and prominent, dis- 
tant from each other about three inches, on an average ; but a 
daily supply of soapsuds and liquid nutriments in a highly 
concentrated form is needful to effect this. Unless artificial 
means be vised to make the roots move before the natural time, 
(the vernal equinox,) an early forced vine will present the very 
singular anomaly of having produced a mass of foliage, and a 
matured crop of grapes, before the roots can have contributed 
anything towards their support. The fruit is then shrivelled and 
shanked, in consequence of the sap, contained in the trunk and 
branches, being exhausted. 

Never expose any vines during the winter for the purpose (as 
some foolishly imagine) of hardening them. All young vines 
should be raised from eyes and not from layers, as the former will 
come into bearing one year earlier than the latter. I object 
much to the sjmr system, on account of the obstruction which 

* Scale of the number of bunches of grapes which any vine can mature in 
proportion to the circumference of its stem : — 
Cir. 

3 in. 30 bunches, having 3 long rods, and 2 as future bearing wood. 
3i in. GO ditto 4 ditto and 4 as ditto. 

4 in. 80 ditto, with 5 rods, and 4 rods as future bearing wood. 

5 in. 100 ditto ditto ditto. 

The stem should be measured just above the ground. O. M, 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



9 



the sap meets with from the old knots, and can only liken 
them to the spavined hock of an aged or worn-out horse. Close 
pruning the vines is far preferable ; leaving growing eyes where 
wood is wanted for next year's bearing. 

Take care to cut the wood of last year back in October, and 
so place the wood of the late summer's growth, that it may have 
the benefit of the sun to ripen it : this makes the wood bear well 
during the following season. Invariably remove all old wood as 
soon as there is strong well-grown young wood to take its place. 

Admit air freely when the grapes are coloured, and that will 
prevent the steam from condensing upon the stem of the bunches, 
which would otherwise stop the circulation of the sap, and 
deprive the berries of nourishment. 

When beginning to force, take care that the roots and stems of 
the vines outside the house are kept in the same temperature as 
the branches in the interior. This can be carried into effect on 
old borders, being supplied liberally with hot stable manure, 
covered with oilcloth. 

At my request, my kind father has recently constructed a hot- 
house at Rolleston Hall, on a novel principle, explained to me 
by Mr. Evan Baillie, of Dochfour, near Inverness, who has 
adopted it with gi'eat success.* The vine border is heated by a 
warm air-chamber underneath, encircled with a brick flue ; thus 
the temperature is easily regulated by an hygrometer and ther- 
mometer ; Yorkshire flagstones support the earth wherein the 
vines are planted, and at each end of the warm air-chamber there 
is a ventilator, and free cii'culation of air from thence to the 
interior of the hothouse, which is built on arches. 

Cut out, from the bearing shoots that are retained, all the 
lateral shoots, close to the bases of the buds, and also the remain- 
ing portions of the tendrils and footstalks of the bunches of fruit 
(if any) as well as all excrescences, and every portion of old wood 
that remains in the vine. Prune them all smoothly, close to 
their parent branches, leaving behind no unsightly ragged edges 
or extremities to disfigure the vine. 

The annual removal of the bark, which comes off easily from 
the stem, is very desirable before the vine is dressed with the 
black sulphur receipt for destroying the red spider; this may be 
regarded as absolutely necessary, for it tends very greatly to 
promote the prosperous vegetation of a vine. Copious sprinklings 



* Vide Plans at the end. 



10 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 




on the floors of tlie houses may be very advantageously given to 
vines from the time of the setting of the fruit until the berries 
are about to swell off, by creating a moist atmosphere at night. 
They stand in need of this additional nourishment, after having 
been kept perfectly free from moisture during the period of 
flowering, and all humidity must cease as soon as the berries 
begin to colour. To facilitate this grand object, the stem and 
branches should at all times enjoy the full power of the sun ; the 
berries* will then be twice the size of 
those grown from rods trained under the 
rafters, and of many grapes grown on 
the spur system. 

Why should not all gentlemen prune 
their own vines during wet days ? They 
would soon ascei'tain that the long rod 
system was far superior to the spur 
pruning, and that they might grow 
branches to vie with the grapes of Eschol. How can any one 
imagine that a single stem carried up beneath a rafter can pro- 
duce grapes equal to those grown on rods of last year's growth, 
which have been always exposed to the sun, and whose fine buds 
proceed from young wood, instead of from shortened side shoots? 
Through the latter (spur) system, it is quite impossible for the 
sap to flow as freely as through the former. The earlier a 
vine is pruned in the fall of the year, the earlier will its buds 
unfold in the ensuing spring. The sap will then accumulate 
in the buds, and increase them to their utmost possible size 
loithout bursting them. This period cannot with safety be 
considered as having arrived before the month of October. 
Do not forget to apply white paint to the extremities of the 
rods, where they have been amputated, for this will yjrevent 
the vines from bleeding when the sap ascends. When prun- 
ing, take as many eyes from the one-year-old wood (if well 
ripened) as may supply yourself and £yg_ 
friends with young vines. Having split 
the wood in half, place it in a seed-pan 
with the eye upwards. Each pan will ^•'^]?- 
contain about eleven eyes: plant them in light, rich, mould, 
and keep it well drained. For the first two months, the 

* The exact size of a black Hamburgh grape. N.B. Eighty bunches from 
one vine, averaging from one pound to two pounds each, and measuring six 
inches in girth, on four rods, and having four more as future bearing wood. 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



11 



pan had better be kept in the shade, and after the eyes have 
struck their small fibres, some bottom-heat will be required. 
When well rooted, pot the eyes off, and place them in the hot- 
house, taking care to protect the leading shoots by means of strong- 
sticks. The autumn being the proper time to manure the vine 
border, let it now be lightly forked up, and a good coating of 
smashed or whole bones, not having been boiled, and old mortar 
rubbish, be laid on, and (as I have already stated) this will make 
the roots come to the surface, if the border be not disturbed 
by cropping or digging; it is necessary therefore to put them 
comfortably to bed for the winter, giving them no cordial in the 
shape of liquid manure until the vernal equinox. For this 
purpose, long stable manure, about half made, will keep the roots 
warm; and to resist the frost, heavy rains, and other atmospheric 
changes, the whole border should be covered with tarpaulins, 
which may be procured at any of the railway stations, where the 
goods or luggage trains are covered with them. When nailed on 
a strong wooden skeleton frame, this useful protection will last 
for years, particularly if taken off the frame in the spring, and 
kept in a dry situation. 

The Vine is a coarse feeder, and can hardly be grown in 
ground too rich in animal and vegetable manure ; if the border 
be not deeper than three feet and a half, and well drained, the 
compost being of a light consistency, it is sure to prosper, and 
the berries will not become shrivelled or shanked before they 
come to maturity. I like to select full plump eyes from well- 
ripened one-year-old wood, and if potted off in No. 48 sized 
pots, when taken out of the seed-pans, with plenty of crocks for 
drainage, they may at the end of June be removed for the 
season, and the pots be sunk close together under a south wall, 
the vines being tacked loosely up to the wall. They must be 
watched, and watered when they require it, and all the time the 
side shoots must be stopped at the first joints. Plants grown 
from cuttings or layers are not equal to those raised from eyes, 
and will not (like the latter) be fit for fruiting in pots, or for 
being planted in a border, for the purpose of being carried 
through into the house to grow under glass, in one season. 

With tolerable growth, the cane will go the length of the 
rafters; but if allowed to bear fruit, it will throw back the vine 
two seasons. Three canes to a rafter are enough in the general 
way, and each year they are fruiting, there must be fresh canes 
growing, according to the scale introduced above. As soon as 



12 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



grapes are large enough to get hold of with thin pointed scissors, 
they should be considerably thinned, taking care to preserve 
those on the shoulders and at the points of the branches, and be 
sure not to destroy the bloom, nor to bruise the footstalks. 
These thinnings must take place five times during the season, as 
it is desirable not to do too much at one time; for one grape 
lost that ought to be retained, w^ill spoil a bunch. As soon as 
the vine begins to swell its buds, it wants moisture — i. e., liquid 
manure outside, after the tarpaulin has been removed (but the 
stable dung must remain until July), and syringing inside the 
house, which must be supplied from the different tanks. (Soap- 
suds, &c., in outside ones.) 

When commencing to force about the end of March, shut the 
houses up, keeping the temperature during the first week from 
forty to fifty degrees, until they are in bloom, and then eighty- 
five degrees should be the maximum; and no air should be given 
during this particular period, unless the sun happens to be very 
hot, and to raise the temperature too much. My late gardener 
would sometimes at this critical juncture, contrary to my wishes, 
heat the houses to one hundred degrees; and the consequence 
was, that the grapes were as small again as they should have 
been. 

" Experientia docet, 
Obsta principiis mali." 

After the grapes are well set, the temperature of the house 
must not be let down below sixty degrees; but during the sun 
heat, it will matter but little if it rises to eighty degrees occa- 
sionally; these are times to give air, which conduces greatly to 
their good, but must not be given at the risk of lowering the 
temperature too nmch; and the roots of the vines outside must 
be kept in an equal temperature with those in the inside, if you 
wish to have fine fruit, free from shanking. Therefore, do not 
remove the dung until after the grapes are nearly ripe in July, 
and the berries will be large and' globular. Prior to colouring, 
syringe morning, noon, and night, keeping a very moist tempe- 
rature, and close your houses early in the afternoon. 

When the last year's shoot reaches the top of the house, stop 
it. If you wish the branches to have a strong and turgid foot- 
stalk, early thinning is desirable ; but the following is an excel- 
lent rule to act upon, in order to produce fine fruits : All shoots, 
of course excepting the leader, and two bearing shoots from the 
base of the stem, are stopped when they attain eight feet long, 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



13 



while the two or llirec succeeding- l);ise shoots (accordinf^ to tlie 
scale noticed above) are each allowed to perfect only four feet 
for next year's bearing wood. No other shoot should be allowed 
to emanate from the parent stem; and so, year by year, young 
canes are started, and the old ones cut away as near the stem as 
possible. 

Heavy bunches of fruit, which would gain prizes at the 
London Horticultural Society (of which my father is one of the 
original members), may be grown all over the house on this sys- 
tem, without weak wood or any confusion of training. This 
also coincides with the received authority of the present time. 
Dr. Lindley — "That the system of English grape-growing 
requires to be changed." The vines should be planted outside 
the houses, and the stem introduced under the surface of the 
soil (or be wrapt up in thick matting) into the houses. 

Keep heat up during the day, and reduce it on the ap- 
proach of night ; and be sure to regulate the temperature in 
such a manner that your grapes, until they are ripe, should 
receive no check. Therefore never remove the manure (as I 
have before remarked) from your border before July, when the 
berries will have changed colour — have begun to swell- — and 
(should the roots have been kept in corresponding temperature 
with the vines inside) will be well grown. 

Should you not find the vines break well, bring the leading- 
shoots back, and that will check the sap. Give as little air as 
possible during the blooming or flowering of the vine, and also 
during the stoning; keeping the thermometer at eighty degrees by 
day, and seventy degrees at night. Examine the border as soon 
as this period is over, and give liquid manure (if required) two or 
three times per week, keeping up a moist atmosphere, as upon this 
proceeding depends the swelling of the fruit, and no shanking 
will then occur. Now also fork over the border, which should be 
twenty-four feet wide, and about three feet six inches deep, 
having a foot in fall from the house to the main drain ; and if 
you can easily procure any whole bones of horses, &c., from a 
tanner, that have not been boiled, bury them one foot from the 
surface. Strong short-jointed canes, twelve feet long, should 
be stopped, to increase the stem ; and to produce grapes before 
the stem attains the thickness of three inches, will be highly' 
detrimental to the vine (I hope that you will excuse these repe- 
titions, which are almost unavoidable on such a subject) : and 
before the grapes colour, syringe morning, noon, and night. 



14 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



Give air freely after the grapes are swelled off and coloured, 
every morning adding fire heat, more or less, according to the 
dampness of the vreather, seldom shutting the houses close up, 
unless in very intense weather; generally leaving the doors and 
front sashes open, and invariably shutting up the tops of the 
houses. By adopting this method, grapes may be kept vintil the 
end of February in excellent order. All the leaves must be 
taken off : and when any of the berries turn mouldy, they should 
immediately be cut out. 

I must not omit to mention, that during July and August, I 
keep my border exposed to the full rays of the sun and air; by 
tvhich means the roots are brought to the surface, as well as by 
the top dressing, consisting of ground bones, rotten manure, 
&c., covered with half-rotten stable manure in September, to 
prevent evaporation. The rains that fall in October and No- 
vember will wash the nutriment down among the fibres, and they 
will make extraordinary progress. 

Syringe lightly in March, and shut up your houses early in 
the afternoon — say two o'clock; April, half-past two; May, 
three ; and so on, as the season and fruit advance to maturity. 
There are some kinds of grapes that do not set their fruits well, 
owing to a defect in the parts of fructification ; to remedy this, 
I give the vine a good shake when the weather is fine in the 
early part of the day, which will be found very beneficial in 
setting the anthers free and dispensing the pollen. Another 
practice is to leave a few extra bunches, taking them off when in 
full bloom, shaking them into paper, and giving it a fillip under 
the flowering bunches. Berries at the time of changing colour 
have nearly half their size to swell, if well grown ; examine, 
therefore, your outside border, and if the heat has much declined, 
add some fresh stable manure, and keep a brisk heat until the 
grapes are coloured, and you cannot fail to reap a due reward for 
all your care and attention. The loss of colour in black grapes 
is (in my opinion) by having an over-abundant crop, and in not 
having thinned them sufficiently. I recommend, when the 
berries attain the size of No, 3 shot, beginning at the bottom of 
the bunch, leaving the leading berry, if possible, and, according 
to the kind of grape, to thin judiciously upward on the bunch ; 
for an inch or two from the bottom, leave the centre berry, 
taking off the other two, proceeding to the main shoulders, and 
they should be tied up lightly with Cuba bast. 



OI.RANINOS ON IIOUTICU LTUUK. 



15 



Take- care, afferwardx, to remove all inside berries, as they 
scarcely ever colour well, and if the grapes have to hang long on 
the vine, they contribute to mouldiness in damp weather. The 
above system of thinning, leaves a bunch equally balanced ; by 
each berry acting its own part, and not robbing another, the 
bunch will be found to assume a strong forestalk, and be regular 
as to size in every part. No person should touch the berries 
with hands wet with perspiration, but he should use a pair of thin 
gloves, and wear a cotton nightcap, as any perspiration will 
retard the swelling of the berries, and make them appear as if 
they had got the rust. When stoned and swelling, thin again, and 
remove the inside berries, keeping up at this time the temperature 
to eighty or eighty-five degrees, with a very humid atmosphere, 
allowing the house to cool down in the after part of the day, 
you will then do without fire by night. I never allow a vine to 
be s^'ringed with cold water, having a reservoir inside the house 
which holds about nine tons of tepid water. If the heat at the 
roots can be maintained by stable manure at ninety degrees, your 
prospects will be most cheering. Many would remove the 
manure from the roots altogether at this time; a very great 
error! from which arises shanking of the forestalksof the berries. 
Frontignacs, Canon Hall Muscats,* and even Hamburghs, are 
often thus disfigured. 

In the early Spring, after the rods of the vine have put forth 
their foliage, it will be easy to discover which of the rods should 
be removed ; the hunches at each eye will be visible, and of 
course where they are few and far between on the branch, it will 
be taken off, to make room for its more fruitful rival branch: 
three rods will be amply sufficient from each vine-stem. We 
cannot enjoy anything, without a perpetual recruiting, and a 
period of rest; neither can the vine flourish and bear well, 
unless this important object shall be attended to ; four months, 
at least, ought to elapse prior to the period of forcing any 
vine. Should you commence exciting the roots, by means of 
heat or liquid manure, until the wood is well ripened, it will 
either prove barren, or the berries will shank and never come to 
maturity. Even when engaged in lawful occupations, how soon 
our spirits flag, unless we daily set some hours apart for a 
requiem, and banish this world's thoughts and anxieties for a 



* Vide Frontispiece. 



16 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



season, that our souls may be engaged in prayer and pfaise ! 1 
find that I have perpetually to struggle against my corrupt in- 
clinations, and that the thoughts and intents of my heart are. 
only evil, and that continually; but these dark truths shall soon 
be cleared up, and all that appears noio to be intricate ; and we 
shall find that blessings arose to us firom what at one period pi'o- 
mised to be injurious to us. I am sure that you will agree with 
me, that God's love has been manifested towards us since our 
youth until the present moment; — may we in everything strive 
to live to His glory, and may the enjoyment of horticultural pur- 
suits, and the bounties of His providence, elevate our souls to 
the " delectable mountains," through faith and confidence in the 
sole merits of our Redeemer. 



TREATMENT OF YOUNG VINES, 



The shoot fi'om a young vine should be allowed to grow until 
it reaches the top of the rafter; and one rod will be sufficient 
where plants are required to be kept during the Winter as bear- 
ing wood. The partial shade of vines is advantageous to plants, 
and many continue longer in flower in consequence. In autumn, 
cut down the one shoot of the young vine to the bottom of the 
roof-sash ; for it is between this part and the top where grapes 
are to be produced. The second year, the vine will make rapid 
progress in growth, and a vigorous shoot will reach the whole 
length of the roof-sashes. This shoot should be stopped at the 
highest point of the house, and the wood will be perfectly ripe 
by the end of the Summer. Grapes ought not to be allowed to 
grow upon any vines trained in hothouses, until the third season 
after planting ; and then only a limited crop should be taken, 
until the stem of the vine measures three inches, according to 
the scale before mentioned. When the autumn pruning arrives, 
the before-mentioned shoot should be shortened two-thirds back, 
allowing only one-third for bearing ; and it will be found the 
ensuing Spring that it will show for fruit at every eye ; probably 
at some eyes two or three bunches will appear; but these should 
all be removed except one — a bunch to an eye is enough — other- 
wise the bunches and berries will be small, liable to shank, and 
be of an indifferent colour. The leading main shoot which has 
sprung from the top eye, must be trained to the extreme point 
of the house, and then stopped. The lateral shoots, producing 



GLEANINGS ON llOHTIOULTUHE. 



17 



fruit, should also be stopped one eye in advance of that from 
which the bunch springs; and the successive laterals, which 
make their appearance during the season, must also be removed 
at this joint. It must be borne in mind, that although it is 
necessary to remove superfluous laterals, none of the leaves be- 
longing to the main stem, or principal side-shoots, must be 
mutilated or taken off on any account; for on these not only 
depends the proper ripening of the current year's crop, but also 
that of the following season. A branch may be removed without 
any fear of the stump bleeding, if the vine is in full leaf. When 
a tendril is once stopped, no fruit is afterwards produced on it, 
for all tendrils are abortive bunches. The final thinning of 
grapes should be accomplished before the berries are as large as 
very small peas. Twelve or fifteen bunches from each rafter 
ought to satisfy any reasonable person, averaging from one to 
four pounds each. It frequently happens that, the bunches pro- 
duce straggling shoulders ; cut them away, or your berries will 
be badly coloured, especially if there is a sluggish action at the 
root. The flavouring process is carried out through the instru- 
mentality of three or four large leaves which accompany the 
bunch, supposing the shoot to have been stopped one joint heyond 
the young bunch. From the period of the young shoot expand- 
ing, until the bunch is fairly developed, the temperature should 
range from fifty-five degrees at night, to sixty-five degrees by day ; 
and from this period until the swelling is completed, sixty 
degrees by night and seventy by day must be secured. In sunny 
weather, between three o'clock and five, p.m., the extreme tem- 
perature should not exceed eighty degrees, or a weak and watery 
growth will be the consequence. The night heat at any time 
should not exceed sixty degrees, as the vine then requires rest ; 
therefore, if the night heat be increased, it only tends to dissipate 
the energies of the tree. I always advocate a liberal ventilation, 
and not even to keep vines close during the first swelling ; but 
at this period, give it with very great caution ; half an inch will 
suffice in the front sashes, even on sunny days, during the early 
Spi'ing months. The egress of the heated air at the back, at a 
liberal rate, is advantageous ; if no vines are planted there, it is 
always desirable to give a little air early in the morning. Light 
fires daily at two o'clock, and let them burn briskly till four ; 
when the dampers should be used, and the fire merely kept in 
during the night, placing as much fuel on at eight o'clock in the 

B 



18 



GLEANINGS ON lIORTICUl TUllE. 



evening as will be totally consumed soon after midnight. If any 
remain the next morning, be sure to pull it clean out, and lay 
the fire for lighting again in the afternoon. 

During the swelling of the berry, the temperature should be 
sixty-five degrees in fair weather — sixty degrees as a night heat, 
or in wet and windy weather, as heat, without a proportionate 
amount of light, is productive of injury, and will also prevent 
the plants drawing. Give a free circulation of air during night, 
as well as morning, provided the necessary warmth can be main- 
tained, for an early ventilation is of paramount importance. 
Syringing is required whilst the vines are breaking ; but to con- 
tinue it after this period is certainly a most erroneous mode of 
procedure. This treatment will subdue the red spider, with the 
addition of sulphur dressing and fumigation, which must be had 
recourse to on suitable occasions. No plan is more likely to 
produce a sufficient quantity of young bearing wood, than the 
long-rod system of pruning, by which one or more J'oung shoots 
are being constantly brought up from the bottom of the tree, to 
produce fruit in their turn, when the old or last year's bearers 
are cut out. This plan has been practised, with success, for the 
last half century. Great virtue is to be attached to the supply 
of a reasonable portion of vapour ; it is found beneficial in de- 
stroying the ova of insects until the leaves are pushed forth, when 
the house must be shut up, and the vines kept in a warm tem- 
perature while they blossom. 

The wood which has to produce the future crop will be all 
made during this period; and, with a good heat, it will grow 
compact, and better able to ripen fruit. If the house be kept too 
cool at the beginning of forcing, the wood will be soft and long- 
jointed, and therefore subsequently barren. Vinesshould be planted 
both outside and inside the house, to secure a succession crop, and 
the exterior borders so high as to allow of their being laid in 
close to the top of the front parapet, by which means little of the 
stems will be exposed to the cold. It is a good thing to cover 
them with soft hay-bands wound round them, and to water these 
stems frequently with a syringe, as the moisture contributes to 
their breaking stronger and the production of vigorous shoots, 
and the roots must also be encouraged to come to the surface of 
the vine border, by means of half-rotten hot dung being spread 
over them, while forcing, every fortnight, the cold manure having 
been removed, and a copious supply of liquid manure preceding 



GLEANINGS ON IIORTICUI.TURK. 



19 



the restoration of" the tarpaulin as an exterior cover against the 
vicissitudes of our northern clime. The borders should never be 
dug, but carefully forked a few inches in depth as soon as the 
frosts are over, merely to render the surface more porous, and 
that the roots should feel the genial influence and warmth of 
the sun's rays. 

Begin the year by having the flues cleaned out, and well white- 
washed outside with hot lime ; the woodwork and glass should 
be also washed with soap and water, and the vines with a mix- 
ture of soft-soap, sulphur, and tobacco. When the course of 
forcing coincides nearly with the natural growing season, ripe 
grapes may be cut in less than five months. 

The temperature should be about fifty to fifty-five degrees, until 
every bud in the house has begun to swell ; if hotter, only a few 
of the leading and strongest buds would start. Use the syringe 
on the branches freely, and steam the house to enable the buds 
to push more freely — keeping the thermometer only one degree 
higher than the hygrometer, and the rise of the sap will be 
facilitated. Afterwards, raise the temperature gradual!}' to sixty 
and seventy degrees in the course of a month — then keep up the 
moisture at eight o'clock in the morning, and the time the flues 
are lighted in the evening, and fill the house with steam, giving 
air during the day very sparingly — say two inches at the bottom 
front lights, and six inches at the top lights. Use stable and 
liquid manure constantly on the borders, and steam the house by 
sprinkling the flues or pipes until the hygrometer reaches sixty 
degrees ; then bring in some unfermented leaves ; these will kill 
all insects, as they contain a great quantity of ammoniacal gas, 
and can do no injury until the leaves of the vines expand. Pour 
a solution of crude muriate of ammonia upon quick lime, and 
the gas thus obtained may be applied with a pair of bellows to 
the plants. Air should be admitted freely to strengthen the 
young buds as they are developed, and the exterior and interior 
temperature should be kept at an equal height ; this is of the 
utmost use in vine culture. 

Vines will not bleed if they are pruned in the autumn, soon 
after vegetation ceases, and when the wood is ripe. In all cases, 
a preventive is better than a cure, and if once it happens to any 
serious extent, it will injure the forthcoming crop and weaken the 
vines. Should it ever occur, peel off the outside bark to the eye 

B 2 



20 



GLEANINGS ON 



HORTICULTURE. 



and press into the pores of the wood a composition of pounded 
chalk and tar mixed to the consistency of putty, and wrap 
round it a piece of ox's bladder ; but the most simple method 

is to thrust the end of the shoot, am- 
putated as above, into a potatoe, and 
the bleeding will cease immediately. 
When vines are in full leaf, they are not liable to bleed when 
cut, and the largest branches may be cut during the growing 
season with safety. Tie the vines up, after pruning, to the 
iron rods, about a foot from under the rafters, so that they 
may receive the benefit of the sun and air, and the rods will 
not then be liable to be injured by frosts. If the buds burst 
strong, it is a good sign that they will show fruit, but if weak, 
vice versa; and if they miss showing fruit on the fourth or 
fifth joint, they will fail altogether, and in that case the 
young shoot, with its weak buds, should be broken off, unless 
situated near the stem, and required to be left for producing 
wood from which next year's crop is to be expected. Do not 
let more than one bunch grow on one lateral, for if more, the 
grapes will not swell well. When the vines come into bloom, the 
temperature should be kept at seventy-five degrees ; and the 
process of watering the borders, &c., until the fi'uit be set, should 
cease, for it would be liable to injure, if not totally destroy, the 
tender parts of the blossom. Air should now be only admitted by 
small openings of a few inches at the lower and upper sashes, 
which will effect a sufficient change. As the young shoots advance, 
stop those which show fruit at the second joint above the fruit, 
pinching it asunder with the finger and thumb, and never use the 
knife. Three strong and properly situated buds should be chosen 
for the production of bearing w ood, near the stem of the vines, and 
these shoots should be laid in to the length of several feet before 
they are stopped. Continue to apply liquid manure and soap- 
suds to the border until the berries are about one-third of their 
size, and then supply them with clear water, withdrawing it as 
they begin to colour; syringing must then also be abandoned, 
as it would destroy the rich bloom upon the berries. At the 
earlier period of their growth, use the engine with considerable 
force, first firom the right, and then from the left side of the 
house, that both sides of the leaves may be thoroughly washed 
morning and evening. Also leave a supply of water on the 
pathway, and use fumigation of tobacco once a week to destroy 



GI.EANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



21 



the thrips, green fly, and red spider, before the fruit attains its 
full size or colour, as it cannot be then applied without injury to 
the fruit. 

But, before I proceed, let me warn you against using sheet- 
glass in your houses, as much as 'the Fire King,'* for it 
shrivels and dries np the young vine-leaves when bright 
sunny weather succeeds that which is cloudy. This burning 
(which quite alarmed me the other morning, when looking 
over my promising rods, with about twenty-five bunches on 
each,) results from waves and knots in the glass, which act as so 
many foci for concentrating the sun's rays. As a remedy, how- 
ever, daub the outside of the glass over with a thinnish solution 
of — say two pounds of glue mixed in two quarts of water boiled 
in a pot, and about six pounds of whiting being added, until it is 
of the consistence of paint ; apply it with a painter's broad brush 
when hot, on the outside of your lights, which will thus appear as 
if they were made of ground-glass ; it will remain on during the 
season, and can easily be removed by rubbing it with a piece of 
flannel and warm water, and a scrubbing-brush. For the summer, 
the advantages of ground-glass will thus be secured without its 
corresponding disadvantages in winter. Had I not discovered 
this invaluable receipt from the Cottage Gardener and the right 
proportions by experience, my promising vines would have been 
annihilated for this season. 

Take off all lateral shoots and tendrils, as they now rob the 
vine and cause confusion, and remove any injured leaves, but 
never take off any healthy ones, or your fruit will be shrivelled ; 
and admit air freely from all the sashes. 

To train vines well, some forethought is required in selecting 
proper shoots at an early period of the season. It must be pre- 
determined how to prune and disbud the wood so as to provide 
for a crop the following season. Such shoots as have been 
stopped will push again: allow the lateral that pushes to run a 
few joints, and then cut it back to one, and so on as it pushes, 
until it stops entirely. When the proper shoot, from which these 
issued becomes ripened nearly to the extremity, the whole of the 
said laterals may be cut off at the originally shortened part, or at 
one joint above it, if there be reason to fear that the uppermost 
bud of the proper shoot will start. When the fruit is sweUing, 
thin the bunches, so as to give sufficient room for the berries, and 
* Keeping the fires by night at too high a temperature. 



22 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



tie up the shoulders; one-fourth of the berries will not in most 
cases be too much to cut off, and such compact growing sorts as 
the Frontignac should be more fully thiimed, to prevent the 
chance of the berries rotting in damp and cloudy weather after 
they are ripe, which a free circulation of air among them will 
materially prevent. Water should be abundantly applied to the 
plants, both at their roots and also over the leaves, but discon- 
tinue at this period the use of liquid manure. 

The vine, to be successfully cultivated, must have free admis- 
sion to light. Heat, although of the highest importance, is 
secondary to it ; for it will bear a more diminished amount of 
the latter than the former. The leaves, in consequence, are 
augmented in point of size and succulency, and it conduces, to- 
gether with stopping, to a concentration of the sap in the vicinity 
of the fruit ; therefore, no growing spray, whether lateral or ter- 
minal, should be allowed to shade the principal leaves, and no 
rods should be trained immediately under the rafters. 

The native climes of the vine — for it inhabits most of the tem- 
perate portions of the northern hemisphere — are Asiatic Turkey, 
Pei'sia, Greece, the Morea, and on the borders of the Black and 
Caspian Seas ; and in Syria and Armenia it grows in the greatest 
perfection. All these climates are furnished with much sun and 
light; and in arresting its rambling tendency by these agents, we 
may well be astonished at the capabilities which our gracious 
Creator has implanted in it to supply the wants of man with 
fruit and beverage. 

I have for years seen the attempt to carry out grape culture, 
in connexion with that of plants in general, and it will succeed 
where the vines are not forced, as the plants will then enjoy a 
healthy situation during the winter, and be planted out before the 
vine laterals will much shade them. I find that soapsuds furnish 
to the vines a nutritious fluid at all times, when a coating of rotten 
manure covers the border, as the latter prevents the puddling 
action of the water, and adds greatly to their fertilization, pro- 
vided the draining of the border can be relied upon. If severe 
drought occur at any time between the first and second swelling 
of the fruit, watering will always then prove of benefit, more 
particularly if the soil is porous and of light quality. The 
leaves turn brown on a bad rooted vine ; and when compared 
with those on a well rooted one, the deficiency of the border 
may be immediately detected. The autumnal purple tint on the 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



23 



leaves is quite sure to accompany a premature and false ripening, 
caused by an insufficient supply of sap from the roots. Many 
vines will blossom, set, and swell tolerably well, but when the 
greatest demand is made on their root action,— which is when the 
grapes commence their last swelling for ripening them, — the leaves 
become discoloured. This ripening of the wood can only be 
obtained by such an exposure to heat and air, as that the juices 
may become highly elaborated, and pass from the circumference 
to the centre. All other things being equal, the stronger the 
wood (provided it is thus matured), the more fruitful it will be. 
Hence, good grapes are frequently produced from small weakly 
wood, and poor grapes from that which is strong and rampant ; 
but in the one case the wood was like heart of oak, in the other 
soft and porous as a willow. It is of importance to give lateral 
shoots the permission of growing until the vines become strong, 
so far as your space will allow, and they do not interfere with due 
exposure to the sun of the principal leaves, because such growth 
above will secure a similar expansion of the absorbing roots 
below. In all cases, the leaves must remain so long as there is a 
particle of green about them ; and thus the secretions formed 
will be stored more plentifully in the beds that remain. The 
runners of strawberries and the laterals of vines should be 
allowed to remain, so as to secure a vigorous root action while 
the fruit is setting, swelling, and ripening, and gradually removed 
when these things are accomplished; because the juices raised 
by the vigorous root action will be gradually lessened in their 
quantity, and the secretions formed rendered more mature, by 
each remaining principal leaf being more exposed to sun, air, 
and heat. 

Mildew makes its appearance on the under side of the vine 
leaves, because that has less light in proportion to the moisture 
— circumstances favourable to the growth of all fungi. It is 
communicable by contact, and may be stayed by picking off each 
leaf as soon as it is perceived, or it may be the cause of a similar 
disease in other plants. It is called oidium vitis, or egg-fungus 
of the vine. The following solution will check it effectually, if 
not entirely remove it. First, — Use a solution, not stronger than 
four ounces to the gallon, of salt, and let the temperature of that 
solution be the same as that of the vinery. Secondly, — Apply 
the solution about six in the afternoon, and let it remain on the 
eaves for twelve hours ; then syringe it off with plain water. 



24 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



also of the temperature of the vinery. Thirdly,— Repeat the 
application every evening, followed by as regular a syringing, 
and the disease will be overcome. Fourthly, — Sprinkle three or 
four pounds of salt over the surface of the border in which the 
vine grows — imparting salt to the sap as a cure for fungi. 

Upon the more advanced state of this plague, its effects upon 
the fruit are to produce a swelling and cracking, accompanied by 
a very strong disagreeable smell, and ending in the grapes be- 
coming a mass of rottenness. The smell is like that of old 
mouldy, decayed wood. The same fungus has been found on 
cinerarias and chrysanthemums. All infected plants in pots 
should be immediately removed out of the vinery. The mildew 
upon cucumber leaves may be successfully removed by the same 
saline application. 

Atmospheric moisture is absolutely essential both for the 
foliage, and to enable the flower to burst the calyx or cup which 
holds it; but a sprinkling of the walls and pathways twice or 
three times a-day would be amply sufficient without saturating 
the atmosphere with hot steam, an opinion which once was pre- 
valent. Take a sheet of white paper daily, and collect the pollen 
or mole dust from the blossoming bunches of good setting sorts, 
such as black Hamburgh. A gentle flirt about noon each day 
will shake it down ; and this fine dust, which appears like sul- 
phur over the paper, must be applied with a dry camel-hair 
pencil, touching lightly the surface of the blossoms of the Muscat, 
or Tokay, or Black Damascus, which are shy setters — the tem- 
perature being at eighty degrees. 

Overdnnging is prejudicial to vines, causing them to run too 
much to wood, unless the soil is deficient in fertility. 

Vines in boxes, two feet deep and one foot square, planted in 
very rich mould and broken bones, watered with liquid manure, 
will produce a succession of ripe grapes, when placed on the 
Jlues in any forcing-house ; and when ripe, the fruit upon the 
plants should be removed into a dry, airy temperature, and after 
being pruned, they will cover twenty square feet of surface. The 
vines should be so arranged, that the shoots as they advance can 
be trained under the glass, and be exposed as much as possible to 
light. As the shoots also advance, train them carefully, and 
stop the laterals as they appear. Apply soap-suds or manure 
water (as before stated) in the growing season, but wlien the 
plants have matured their crop, during the flowering, and when 



GI.EANINCIS ON IIORTICULTUUE. 



25 



the wood has begun to ripen, water should be gradually withheld. 
The black Hamburgh is the best kind for box culture, and the 
White Frontignac also succeeds well ; the latter sets its fruit best 
in the coolest part of the house. I prepare the buds or eyes in 
the way before mentioned — just covering the wood — and use 
leaf-mould and sand to plant them in, as soon as they have struck 
root; I then pot them off into eight-inch pots, using a mixture 
of well-rotted cow-dung, leaf-mould, and strong loam, in equal 
proportions. After this, I subject them to bottom heat, until the 
roots faix'ly show that another shift is wanted, which is the final 
one — namely, boxes as described. 

From the time the vines are started, the strictest attention 
ought to be paid to admitting air, and to its effects on the hygro- 
meter; in cloudy and wet weather, short fires are to be put on 
in the morning, so as to raise the heat nearly ten degrees above 
the night temperature, and a little air admitted both at the front 
and back of the house, taking care to keep plenty of water on 
the flues and floor; for a strong fire-heat, accompanied by a 
brisk circulation, would be very injurious if not counteracted by 
moisture. In bright weather, equal attention is necessary' ; for if 
a great deal of air is admitted to keep down the heat, it is impos- 
sible to have the atmosphere sufficiently moist, consequently the 
vines suffer. Air ought to be admitted, not so much to keep 
down the heat, as to maintain a current of fresh air in the houses; 
for which purpose small openings at the front and back are suffi- 
cient. Vines will seldom be hurt by sun-heat if surrounded by 
a pi'operly moistened atmosphere, but to maintain this in dry, hot 
weather, the utmost vigilance is necessary. As then there is very 
little heat in the flues, the floors ought to be kept deluged with 
water. Although the thermometer may be kept steady, it is 
impossible to keep the hygrometer one degree below it, unless a 
little air be admitted, and the flues steamed as soon as the sun 
raises the heat a few degrees, and you keep up a sufficiency of 
moisture. After selecting the best young vines for the boxes, rub 
off all the eyes as the vines break but the six or ten lowermost. 
When these have attained to the length of about a foot, I select 
the best, and rub the other off, and by the latter end of the 
season the remaining shoot has made a strong cane, and the 
preceding year's wood, up to A from B, is completely exhausted 
of its sap, presenting the appearance of a piece of wire. It is 
now cut back to B. I leave only last year's shoot nearly at its 
full length, and everything is then in readiness for commenc- 



26 GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 

ing to force in the following spring, when I manage the vines 
thus: — 




I disbud all eyes as soon as I can catch hold of them with my 
finger and thumb, except those represented above ; and when 
the wood is completely exhausted of its sap from C to D by the 
growing shoots, I then cut the shrunk branch off at C. I take 
from each vine, on an average, from ten to fifteen bunches of 
grapes, and fruit the same vines two years in the same boxes in 
which they were first planted. I imagine that my success may 
be attributed to leaving the old wood to be exhausted of its sap 
by the new; for much finer rods can be obtained by doing this 
than by the old-fashioned way of managing young vines. I never 
cut out the eyes of the vine in a dormant state, but allow them 
to break, for I think it the more advantageous plan to allow the 
sap to be put in motion first. When there is no outlet for the 
sap above the growing shoot, it immediately returns to the root, 
and is taken up in its downward passage by the growing shoot. 
The circumstance of vines imder glass emitting roots at the joints 
along the shoots is not uncommon, but it is injurious to the pros- 
perity of the vine, and tends to prevent the existing crop from 
acquiring perfection. Moisture favours the formation of these 
roots; they shrivel in hot dry weather, but push again during a 
dull state of atmosphere. They arise from the shoots being in a 
favourable situation for growth, and the roots the reverse. The 
leaves elaborate a quantity of sap proportionate to their size, and 
to the share which light has had in perfecting their development 
where vigorous growth is promoted. There is always a surplus 
beyond what the stem and its dependencies above ground 
require ; and the proper destination of this is the roots, that their 
increase may correspond with that of the plant above them. 
When roots of vines are healthy in properly drained soil, suffi- 
' ciently warm and not too deep, their growth proceeds in proper 



GLEANINGS ON IIOKTICULTUIIE. 



27 



proportion to that of the top, but if they are badly conditioned, 
they can neither act their part, nor appropriate their share of 
returning juices, consequently an accumulation of the latter 
takes place in the stems, and favoured by the moist warm atmo- 
sphere of the vinery, bursts through the bark in the form of 
spongioles, continuing to lengthen till they are checked by 
droughts. They assist in forming foliage during moist weather, 
but dry up when they are most wanted, and cause the shanking 
and shrivelling of the fruit. Their appearance may be prevented 
by maintaining a due proportion between the temperature of the 
air and earth in which the vines are planted. 

ON PRUNING AND THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF PEACH-TREES, 
NECTARINES, APRICOTS, &C. 

About the first week in February, the buds of the peach-tree 
will begin to exhibit considerable prominency. Before the trees 
are fastened to the wall, I would therefore advise their being 
washed over with the following mixture : — 1 lb. of soot, 1 lb. of 
soap, J lb. flowers of sulphur, 4 lb. of fine chopped tobacco — put 
the whole into a vessel of boiling water; add unslacked lime, and 
a sufficient portion of lamp-black to give it a grey colouring, until 
the mixture assumes the consistency of cream. Paint every por- 
tion of the tree over with this mixture, using a painter's brush, 
and taking care that the liquid is hot, and that it reaches every 
crevice. If applied in fine weather, it will soon dry, so that a 
second careful inspection had better take place, and any parts 
omitted gone over with the brush. When this is completed, the 
trees may be fastened to the wall, and trained in the usual 
manner. Peach-trees require protection in the spring till the 
fruit is set; this may be effected by waterproof calico, fastened 
by means of loops to the hooks which support the projecting 
galvanized coping; the canvass is kept from the wall by means 
of hop-poles, placed in a slanting direction, the lower part of 
the canvass being tied over the poles to small hooks fastened 
opposite each lower string or loop in the wall. This covering 
can easily be put up or taken down, to expose the trees in not too 
sunny weather, and protect them as the evening approaches. 

Waterproof canvass, or calico, may be procured from Richard- 
son and Co., Tonbridge-place, Euston-square, at Is. per yard, 
which, if taken care of, will last for years, and be useful also to 
wrap round pyramidal pear-trees when in blossom, and to pro- 



28 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



tect plants in frames from frost (instead of expensive mats) 
during the winter season. My calico coverings are always fixed 
up at the end of February, when the blossom-buds are advanced 
on the wall-trees, to keep them from intense sun-light, as well as 
from frosts, for the former exhausts the juices of the tree faster 
than the roots can supply fresh sap.* 

Galvanized iron coping prevents radiation also ; the wall 
having become warmed by the sun during the day, parts with 
the heat again during the early part of the night, and any sub- 
stance (however thin) which accomplishes this object is desir- 
able, as it arrests the departure of the heat, on the same 
principle that mats and calico coverings are found to be beneficial. 
The walls are preserved dry by this coping during the spring and 
autumn rains, and during the summer it wards off that intensity 
of sunshine which is too exciting, and in some cases positively 
injurious: it also, during frosty nights in March, after a bright 
sunshine during the day, moderates such extremes of tempe- 
rature. 

As soon as the fruit is set on peach-trees, or nectarines, and 
the young shoots are about an inch long, these coverings may be 
entirely taken away, and the trees disbudded. This latter opera- 
tion should be performed with the hand ; and care should be 
taken to leave the bud nearest the base of the shoot, as this, in 
most cases, will be the one to depend upon for next season's 
bearing. A second disbudding will be necessary three or four 
weeks later, when the minimum number of shoots required must 
be determined upon. As the season advances, and during the 
progress of growth, I would recommend copious syringings with 
soft tepid water. When the evenings are cold, this should be, 
done in the morning, but the afternoon is preferable in warm 
weather. This may be repeated twice every week in dry seasons, 
until the fruit approaches maturity, when all waterings should be 
suspended. 

An important item in the culture of the peach, and too fre- 
quently overlooked, is never to overload the trees; if this be done, 
the quality of the fruit will always be inferior in size and flavour. 
The fruit should be regulated to about six inches from each 
other. Under all circumstances, this will be an ample crop. 
The thinning should be effected at two different periods — the 
first when the fruit is about the size of cherry-stones, and the 
second immediately after stoning. 

* The calico has lasted three years, and is as good as new. 



GLEANINGS ON IIORTIOOLTUKE. 



'29 



During the whole period of culture, keep the borders in a 
loose, friable state, in order that the sun and air may reach the 
roots; and, if possible, never crop them with any kind of 
vegetable, how slightly soever it may be done, within a yard 
round the stem. The soil, if not light, must be made so by 
turfy loam from a common, or road scrapings, and by (what is 
indeed the most essential point,) draining. I have a good brick 
drain at the bottom of my border a foot deep, and half a foot 
wide, into which I have small drains, the distance of from four 
to six yards apart, consisting of two-inch pipes covered in with 
brushwood and rubble, having about six inches fall. Peach-trees 
especially require a dry shallow border, for if the roots get 
into the wet subsoil, they will produce nothing but barren 
wood ; whereas, under proper management, such as by digging 
a trench round the roots, about two feet deep, the third autumn, 
and paring the roots (if required) until the trees are in a bearing 
state, filling it up again with leaf-mould, or some light compost, 
short-jointed shoots, full of flower-buds, will be the result. The 
depth of the soil for peaches need not exceed two feet, and the 
border ought to be higher than the walks, and sloping from the 
wall, in order that the heavy rains may run oif immediately. 
Some people advise the bottom of the border to be jmved with 
bricks, to prevent the roots from penetrating the unhealthy soil 
beneath ; but this I am convinced, from dear bought experience, 
will not answer, except with old trees : a mass of rubble is the 
best thing to keep the soil dry, and at the same time afford a 
supply of air to the roots — a material, but too often neglected 
point. Having procured trained plants, the roots should be 
spread upon the surface, keeping the stem three inches from the 
wall, and the roots should not be covered deeper than two inches 
with light soil, forming a little hillock. I do not recommend any 
manure but leaf-mould being used (excepting a little from the 
stable-dung, to mulch them with during the frost), for it tends to 
the production of wood only. Encourage the growth of the roots 
near the surface of the border by all means in your power, by 
never cropping it heavily. 

Peach and nectarine trees seldom require root pruning more 
than once, and will not endure it lohen advanced in age, except in 
extreme cases of great luxuriance, for they are not long-lived 
trees under any circumstances. Great care should be taken to 
leave no bruises on the roots, and I invariably prune to a bunch 
of fibres, for fear that in cutting a naked portion, gangrene might 



30 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



ensue through a part of the root dying back. I last autumn 
trenched round my four-year old trees (about three feet from the 
stem), which are very luxuriant, and cut by this means U7ider the 
roots at that distance. 

From this trench, about two feet deep, I got at any tap-root, 
by scooping the earth away on one side, so as to get quite under- 
neath; but I fear that this system of root-pruning will not 
succeed with a peach-tree, nectarine, or apricot (even grafted on 
an apricot stock) that is eight years old. A tree generally throws 
out its roots as far as the branches extend ; form an ideal circle 
to that distance; for the luxuriant trees, cut away one-third — of 
course the outer circle ; for the very luxuriant, cut away half the 
circle. 

I have root-pruned my young apricots, grafted on Almond and 
Apricot-stocks (instead of, as formerly, on Plum-stocks, which 
prevented the sap from rising at the proper period, and the 
branches kept dying annually, and the tree did not live out half 
its days) in this way with advantage; but the operation should 
not, however, be carried to an extreme, for, like peaches and 
nectarines, their power of rallying again is not so great as with 
the pear-tree. 

All nailing should be finished by January, and never drive the 
nail close to the shoot in order to fix it straight, for by this 
means the shoots get wounded. A very slight degree of atten- 
tion in placing the shreds alternately in opposite directions, will 
be sufficient to hold them perfectly firm and straight. If the 
ground is wet from heavy rains, get some planks or boards to 
stand on. Small branches of spruce firs, stuck top downwards 
among the shoots of wall-trees, will, during slight frosts in the 
Spring, protect them ; but no material is so efficient as the calico 
coverings, before-mentioned, for either wall-trees or frames. 
Great attention must be paid to the disbudding of apricots, 
making it as a rule, that the foreright and all buds be taken 
away, excepting the leader and the bud near the base on the 
upper side of the shoot. A few spurs may be also left, and lay 
in the wood from four to six inches apart, curving each branch 
to check the sap. The shoots can be stopped when it is wanted 
to fill up a vacant space. Should green-fly appear on peaches, 
instead of the usual morning or afternoon syringing with tepid 
water, wash them with tobacco- water, or with soap-water and 
sulphur, also applied by the engine. Attend to dishlossoming and 
disbudding ; and in pruning, leave no more wood than is requi- 



GLEANINGS ON IIOUTICULTURIv 



31 



site for a perfect tree the following season ; stop the leaders when 
wood is wanted. In pruning, nail in the wood of young trees 
at full length ; and when the shoots are not growing equally, de- 
press the strong, and raise the weaker ones to a more erect posi- 
tion ; and this will equalize their growth. Thin peaches regularly, 
and not much at a time ; and if the tree be too luxuriant, it may 
be checked beneficially by a heavy crop, and if unhealthy, the 
reverse. 

Nectarines should be nailed and thinned in the same way. 
Thin the fruit to ten inches apart, if the tree is in good condi- 
tion. Should the red-spider appear, syringe or apply the engine 
with some force, using soap-suds and soot-water. Liquid manure 
may be given with benefit to both peaches and nectarines. Look 
over the trees well, when the fruit is stoned, and make a final 
thinning; this, done in time, with a sharp-pointed knife, will 
prevent many from falling off. 

The month of October is the proper time for moving peach 
and all other trees, (excepting hollies, which transplant best 
during the month of June,) and January, February, and June for 
pruning them ; the shoots which grow straightforward out of the 
tree must all come away (called disbudding), as they are neither 
sightly nor convenient to train. In August, all watering should 
cease as soon as they take their last swelling. When ripe, pro- 
vide for their falling into nets or mats ; take off some of the 
leaves from the fruit, so as to give it the more sun, and nail in 
any branches that may in the least require support, especially in 
young trees. As soon as the fruit is gathered, commence syring- 
ing ; and thin out superfluous shoots, any decayed leaves, &c., 
and attend to the perfecting of the wood, by giving it all the sun, 
air, and light possible ; it will then get red, and hard, and ripe 
for the next season. Pruning is generally deferred until Spring; 
but it may be done with advantage late in the Autumn, except 
during frosts. Leave a few spurs on the apricots, but depend 
upon the young wood chiefly ; and when nailing, use as few 
nails and shreds as possible. There is no essential dissimilarity 
in the cultivation which peaches and nectarines require. It must 
be recollected that the peach produces its fruit-blossoms imme- 
diately from the wood of the previous summer's growth ; secure 
such fruitful shoots by carrying out the side branches in direct 
lines about a foot distant (as already said) from each other. On 
the upper side onhj of these should the annual wood be permitted 
to develop ; and in the Spring months, all buds should be re- 



32 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



moved which do not occupy such a position : no buds produced 
from the lower side will be required. These shoots may be 
allowed at about eighteen inches distance {accordhig to the strength 
of the tree) from each other along the branch. This will be better 
understood by the following sketch. 




An Apricot grafted on an Apkicot Stock of four years' growth, 
originated by Oswald Mosley. — Seymour's System. 



Pay attention to the individual strength of each shoot. They 
seldom or never should be retained more than a foot long, and 
they should be cut back to a wood-bud, which differs from a 
blossom-bud, in being small and pointed, whereas the latter is 
large and nearly round. To maintain this system, a shoot, simi- 
lar to those just mentioned, is annually required to occupy the 
place of each ; and some others to fill up the fresh spaces occu- 
pied as the trees extend. Now these are to be obtained by 
training in a young shoot in a curvilinear direction at the end from 
the base of each bearing shoot during the Summer, at full length : 
of course, the one most conveniently placed will be selected, as 
near the base as possible. The topmost bud must be allowed to 
grow a few inches, and then stop it, by pinching out the growing 
point : all others which have not fruit at their base, must be 
removed, and all that have, should be allowed to develop two or 
three leaves, and then be stopped. Whenever two blossom-buds 
are placed side by side on the shoot, the weakest should be re- 
moved. Whenever, also, a leaf is observed having a blistered 
appearance, it had better be removed ; if in apricots, by hand- 
picking. This is the work of insects, and the garden engine 
must be used to dislodge them, at any period except during 
bright sunshine, from the time the fruit is set until it approaches 
maturity. 

To ascertain the ripeness of the fruit, do not press it with the 



GLEANINGS ON UORTICULTUUE. 



33 



Hno-ers, but gently lift it upwards; and if ripe, it will easily be 
detached, and vice versa. Almost all diseases originate in the 
soil being too rich, too deep, or too moist ; such as mildew, the 
gum, and the canker. The first is a fungus, and is often brought 
on by a change in the condition of the atmosphere ; but by 
giving attention to the borders, and protecting the tree by a 
coping of at least six inches, to keep off violent rains, it might 
be prevented, as well as the two l?tter. In favourable seasons, 
the blossoms often set more fruit than they can support, or 
have room to attain full growth ; and if all were to remain, 
it would hurt the trees in their future bearing ; therefore, they 
should be timely thinned, when of the size of peas or half- 
grown gooseberries. There should be a preparatory thinning 
before the time of stoning, and a final one afterwards ; because 
most plants, especially such as have overborne themselves, drop 
many fruit at that crisis. Finish the thinning with great regu- 
larity, leaving those retained at proper distances; three, four, or 
even five on strong shoots, two or three on middling, and one or 
two on the weaker shoots ; and never leaving more than one 
peach, nectarine, or apricot at the same eye, for the spur system 
is seldom now adopted even with the latter. The fruit on weakly 
trees, thin more in proportion. 

To renovate old and decayed trees, head them down, and 
renew the soil from an old upland pasture ; and if the bottom of 
the border is moist, or if the roots have gone more than two feet 
or two feet and a half downwards, pave the bottom, or otherwise 
render it dry and impervious to roots at the depth of twenty 
inches or two feet from the surface. This plan will be found 
almost universally successful in restoring sufficient vigour to resist 
insects and diseases, and produce abundance of fruit. After a 
frosty night, if there is any appearance of the bloom of young 
fruit having been affected, water them with cold water from the 
garden engine, if they are even discoloui'ed. This operation 
recovers them, provided it be done before the sun comes upon 
them. Whenever that part of the bearing branch which extends 
beyond the fruit is without foliage, the fruit itself rarely acquires 
maturity, and never its proper flavour or excellence. This 
is owing to the want of returning sap, which would have been 
furnished by the leaves, and has been proved experimentally by 
in-arching a small branch immediately above the fruit ; for it 
immediately acquired in consequence the highest degree of 
maturity and perfection. 

c 



34 



GLEANINGS ON IIOUTICULTURE. 



Young wood of the peach-tree is liable to be covered with 
black spots or blotches, which are produced by over-rich soil. 
Cut the blemishes out with a knife in March, and by Septem- 
ber the wounds will be healed. Clear off the rich mould 
entirely from the roots, and replace it by light loam, scourings of 
ditches or roarf-.scra^w^.s-, old mortar-rubbish, leaf-mould, and turf 
from an old pasture, chopped up and well mixed together. 

Fruit, when ripe, may be preserved from wasps and flies by 
honied bottles, laid in behind the leaves and examined every 
morning; also by means of two hand-glasses, one placed over 
the other, the lower one having a small hole at the top and 
raised upon bricks ; a plate containing honey or brown sugar, 
boiled to a syrup with beer, being placed beneath it to attract 
them, they will immediately rise after feasting, and find their 
way into the upper glass, through the small hole, never to re- 
turn : a slight squib of brimstone mercifully gives them their 
" quietus." Earwigs may be easily caught by the beetle-trap, 
reeds or beanstalks, placed in favourable situations about each 
tree, and often examined. 

Always gather peaches a few days before the fruit is required 
for table, and before it is dead-ripe. A dry, airy shelf in the 
green-house or fruit-room is the most appropriate place to con- 
sign it to. Peach-trees force well under glass, and their ripen- 
ing may be accelerated in the open air, by being protected 
by means of old shop-windows ; or, when planted against a 
hot wall, by the application of gentle fires in cold moist weather 
in August and September. This will ripen the wood ; but 
no attempt should ever be made to accelerate the blossoms early 
in Spring, as they are almost certain to be cut off unless protected 
with old windows, &c., as above mentioned. 

Nectarines suffer much from the wood-louse ; it will therefore 
be necessary to hang up a number of bundles of bean-stalks 
about them. No tree suffers more from too hasty disbudding 
than either the peach or nectarine ; indeed, they are exceedingly 
sensitive to any injury. And this may arise from want of solidity 
in their wood, which is certainly of a very porous character, and 
may contain, in our cold climate, a much less amount of the 
cambium, or, as we may call it, " life-blood," of vegetation than 
our hardier fruits. A very severe disbudding, performed at once, 
seems to paralyze the whole energies of the trees for awhile, or 
until an increased amount of foliage is produced through the 
extension of the growing shoots. Disbudding, therefore, Ought 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



35 



in all cases to be pertbnued hy instalments. We do not wish to 
make it appear a tedious process ; but we may say, that for those 
amateurs who are masters of their time, and enjoy gardening 
pursuits, it would be well to perform a little dail//. In commenc- 
ing to disbud a peach-tree (for the nectarine treatment may be 
merged in this), the first care is to rub off all those coarse-look- 
ing young shoots which stand straight out from the wall, and 
look as though they were ambitious of becoming individual trees. 
We consider that the free production of these is by no means to 
be deprecated ; they merely denote a very healthy root action, 
not onl}' at the present time, but one of a I'etrospective cha- 
racter. All they want is judicious management, and a little 
adroitness, to turn the flow of sap into more legitimate courses. 
After slipping off such shoots with the finger and thumb, the 
next point is to see if any young spray is growing behind the 
old twigs, in a position to become distorted or crushed between 
the branches and the wall. These also must be rubbed off ; but 
be it understood, such operations are not obliged to be completed 
in one day ; they may be made to extend over a whole fortnight. 
Another caution here becomes necessary : — If any vacant spaces 
exist on the contiguous parts of the wall, some of these crooked 
portions must be retained ; for it is better to have a shoot of this 
character than a barren portion of walling. 

These things being duly carried out, the next thing is to see 
if even good-looking and well-placed young shoots are not too 
much crowded. This is sure to be the case if the tree be 
healthy; and here comes the tug of war — here it is that much 
discretion and intelligence of a prospective character is requisite. 
Our practice is to commence at the extremity of every shoot or 
branch, tracing it from thence downwards. We first remove 
every side shoot of the young spray which appears likely to enter 
into competition with the leader; and this will in general cause i 
every young shoot within four inches of the point to be stripped /! 
off. No two shoots of young spray should grow side by side, if 
possible ; they should, at the ultimate thinning or disbudding, stand 
in a regular series successively, from the collar to the extremities, 
all over the tree. Still, as I before observed, this cannot be finally 
accomplished until after the lapse of many weeks. 

One point of great importance we here would impress — to be /| 
sure and reserve the lowest growing young spray all over the ,/ 
tree, which prevents it being naked. Of course, in fan -training, )! 
blanks will at times occur, and these must be kept filled up by 

c 2 



36 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



the produce of reserved shoots. Remove them when getting 
crowded, and prefer the young spray springing from the upper 
portion of a branch (called Seymour's system) to that which 
springs from the under side. Pursue a systematic course in these 
operations; and the eye should be directed to the grosser parts 
of the tree, or they soon become confused. In earlier disbud- 
ding, when shoots present themselves of a doubtful character, 
there is no occasion to be over nice, but to reserve them for final 
thinning, and pinch off the points of some of the growing 
shoots. After a slight disbudding, certain gross shoots thrust 
themselves forth, caused by close pruning ; for in the olden times 
they were cut back to two or three eyes in October, having ram- 
bled unstopped through the Summer, instead of being stopped 
in May; and in case these rods again appear, the tree must be 
root-pruned. Therefore, pinch off by times those shoots which 
show a disposition to shoot into lateral branches. This will 
manifest itself by the time they are about six inches in length, 
and will occur from the first week in May to the beginning of 
June. All shoots which commence branching off into side 
spray-wood, should have their points pinched oflF merely at the 
extreme end, except in a young tree beginning to acquire 
strength, when they should be permitted to ramble, in order to 
get a good root action, and to have the wall soon covered. 
Stopping established trees is to equalize the sap, that the fruit 
and all the subordinate parts of the tree may be duly supplied 
with nutriment. 

Nail down shoots which do not overshadow others, and take 
care to stop them when about eight or nine inches long : secure 
two pairs of them — others are not worth saving. If shoots 
having fruit at the foot are growing very strong, and have pro- 
duced as much as one foot in length, shorten their tops by 
pinching them in the first week in August. Do not cut out two- 
year-old wood. Now, if possible, try and lay in as many of the 
annual shoots as arc requisite : all really surplus ones must be 
removed, or cut back to a couple of leaves. In May and August, 
the general stopping of peaches and nectarines should take place : 
it is a most essential point of culture, having a direct tendency 
to moderate that extreme vigour of roots, which at this period of 
the year, through the influence of a high ground temperature, is 
apt to produce late growths, especially if the soil is rich, and 
the roots are at a considerable depth. 

Another object is accomplished by stopping. Rapid growth 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



37 



is inimical to both size and flavour in the fruity Lotli which 
qualities are enlianced by wl)at we may term a concentration of 
the elaborated juices, wliich at this period shoukl be in full 
power. Commence stopping as soon as the last swelUng of the 
fruit begins: this will be about the first week in August. Go 
over the trees three times — beginning first at the extremities, 
pinching off the mere growing point of every shoot that may be 
considered a leading one, or inclined to be rather rampant. Not 
a shoot should be touched on tlie subordinate part of the tree 
which has acquired the character of a leader. Stop all shoots 
which overlap the others near the collar of the tree, and all those 
which spring foi'th from the sides of theymmf) sliooU of the current 
year: these are termed axillary shoots. By this period they will 
be six inches in length at least; and where more walling re- 
mains to be covered, they will be required to remain till the 
winter's forming, although many foolishly cut them away, for they 
cannot fancy the appearance of them, as they differ so much 
from the bearing wood. They produce fruitful shoots in the 
ensuing year, and if stopped at this dressing, it will impart 
a woody firmness to the shoots. One-third of the growing 
shoots should now have been stopped, besides the axillary 
shoots. In another fortnight, go over the trees again, and 
stop another third portion, on precisely similar principles ; and 
should any stopped before commence growing again, stop them 
at every point. 

The other remaining weak shoots should not be stopped 
at all by this systematic course of stopping. It is easy to cause 
the lower portion of the tree to become stronger than the prin- 
cipal branches. This can be done by winter-pruning, when a 
fine strong-growing peach-tree covers two-thirds of the space of 
the wall allotted to it. Much deviation from such a case will be 
necessary when the trees are weak, as little stopping is required. 

Those who have gross and barren trees, may feai'lessly prune 
the extremities of the roots, or leave the trencli open for a few 
weeks, in order to check them by drought ; and this will super- 
sede the necessity of more severe operations, especially if a iiot 
and dry sunnner occurred. It would be tantamount to planting 
the trees elevated above the ground level, the beneficial effects 
of which are well known ; and the plan of curving all the 
branches at their termination is not yet sufficiently appreciated. 

If this is carried into effect even so late as in April, you will be 
surprised to find blossom-buds on trees which never produced 



38 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTUUE. 



any before ; but i*ecollect, as I have before remarked, this must 
be done with the utmost caution. With young trees, it will 
answer invariably ; but, from experience, I am convinced that a 
tree advanced in years had better be removed and a young one 
planted in its room ; for it is only a loss of time to endeavour to 
renovate old trees, more especially peach-trees. 

ON THE CULTIVATION OF MELONS, &C. 

An ordinary dung-frame, or brick-pit, should be covered with 
unfermentable materials beneath each hillock ; the bed for 
March should be about three feet six inches high at the back ; 
but three feet, or even less, will suffice, during the remainder of 
the season. Tree leaves should by all means be mingled libe- 
rally with the dung, in proportion of one-half at least. As soon 
as the bed is built, linings of long litter should be placed around 
it, to promote speedy fermentation, and in about one week the 
bed will have become very hot — hotter, indeed, than at any 
period afterwards; and now, the temporary lining may be in 
part drawn aside, and the bed must receive a thorough watering, 
usina: a double amount of water alono; the centre. 

Preparation for the mounds of soil may now proceed, and each 
centre should be hollowed out a foot deeper than the rest of the 
bed — for melons love depth of soil ; and with this precaution it 
is impossible they should burn. 

With one foot below the level, and about fifteen inches above, 
the soil will be two feet deep in the centre, shelving off to about 
nine inches at the edge of the frame inside. Not that the frame 
should be soiled over entirely until the plants are becoming 
established ; it is much safer to start the plants for a week or two 
at first in the hillocks, leaving a space all around them, and 
between them and the sides of the frame, of naked fermenting 
material. The policy of this will be obvious ; for after all the 
working or fermenting of the dung, some slight amount of noxious 
gases will remain, or be engendered in the bed; there is no way 
so ready or so certain to dissipate them as the application of 
water ; it also assists in raising atmospheric moisture, so necessary 
to the well-being of the young plant until thoroughly established. 
Vegetable matter, and also strong loamy soil, are sometimes used, 
and the success of the melon, as far as the soil is concerned, 
depends much on the relation the mode of culture bears to the 
soil in question. Those who use light or vegetable soils lay their 



GLEANINGS ON HOllTICUI-TURR. 



.39 



nccount to a free application of water at certain j)criods, while 
those who use adhesive loams apply little water to the roots. If 
planted in light soils, containing much vegetable matter, the 
plants will, of course, grow very luxuriantly ; and then, if a check 
ensue through drought, they will generally become a pi'ey to red- 
spider. For such reasons, there is nothing better than a sound 
loam of considerable depth. 

Nevertheless, as every amateur cultivator cannot always obtain 
this valuable article, it is well to know that any moderately rich 
garden soil will succeed, if deep enough ; and if poor, it may be 
enriched with a portion of manures, or vegetable matters in a 
half-decomposed state. In making the mounds, it is a good plan 
to fill the hollow formed to receive the soil with lumpy turf, fresh 
from the pasture or common, and on this the hillock of compost. 

As to raising the young plants, the process is similar to that 
observed in cucumber culture ; only, it may be remarked, that 
the melon cannot well endure so low a temperature as the 
cucumber. We consider seventy degrees as indispensable ; 
eighty degrees, however, will be found more suitable. They are 
potted off as soon as the seed-leaf is fully developed ; and when 
they shoot, the central point is in general pinched out: this 
causes them to push a couple or more of shoots, and those are of 
a more fruitful character than those first formed, and will be 
required, without further stopping, to train over the bed. We 
consider two plants enough for a mound, and they may therefore 
be placed in pairs, in five-inch pots. As soon as the heat is 
right, and the plants are established, the sooner they are out the 
better. Melons do not succeed well where they have been 
stinted in their pots ; we have known them afterwards produce 
nothing but male blossoms. The subsequent management, until 
they require to be finally earthed up, will be, like the cucumbers, 
to sprinkle the frame occasionally, and sometimes to water the 
plants, using always tepid water. When the roots of the plants 
begin to reach the outside of the mounds, the soiling must be com- 
pleted, and the surface should be made to slope from the mound 
on all sides, thus leaving a convex surface ; this keeps the crown of 
the plant and its stem dry — a necessary course, in order to avoid 
canker, to which the melon is peculiarly liable, especially in 
damp and cloudy summers. It is a good plan to cover the sur- 
face of the bed with small pieces of slate or fine gravel composed 
principally of small stones. The fruit will both set better and 
possess higher flavour. 



40 



GLEANINGS ON 



HORTICULTURE. 



The pair of shoots from each plant must be pegged out in a 
proper serpentine direction as they advance; and if the plants 
stand one north and the other south, one shoot of each may be 
trained to each angle of each light, and when it nearly meets the 
angle, the point must be pinched off. When frames are small, 
it is well to peg the advancing shoots in a serpentine direction. 
This will be found to give a greater number of eyes; and, 
moreover, it is a well known fact that the farther the shoots 
extend, the more fruitful they become, and the finer the produce. 
Soon after stopping the terminal point. Fide-shoots will sprout 
from almost every leaf; and if the plants have been properly 
managed, most of these will show female bl ossoms as soon as they 
are a few inches in length. 

As, however, our plan is to turn the linings once a week or 
ten days,- and to top up as often as necessary, it must also be 
remembered that a proper temperature must be kept up, seventy 
degrees by da}', and sixty-five degrees by night, allowing an 
afternoon advance of ten degrees in simny weather. If the 
bottom heat gets beyond eighty degrees, let water be liberally 
applied between the mounds, taking care to have all fiery heat 
well subdued by the soiling period. I have tried various kinds 
of melons, but find the Beechwood green flesh far preferable to 
any others. 

Can anything be more delightful than to place before your 
friends this delicious fruit? Remember then to sow two-year old 
seed; and you will not fail to have a good crop. 

BIANAGEMENT OF STRAWBERRIES. 

I have for several years grown my strawberries in a manner 
which has improved their culture, particularly the Haut-bois — 
they produce fruit of a high flavour when planted in a sunny 
situation. 

The British-queens attain the size of eggs, and are well 
ripened at the tips, which I attribute to watering them freely 
while they are in bloom. The plants are set two feet apart, and 
eighteen inches between the rows ; the ground having been well 
double-dug and trenched. Drains, with at least six inches fall, 
made with two-inch bore-pipes, are laid in about four feet deep. 
The ground best suited to their growth is a sloping bank with a 
southern aspect, and the roots of the plants are in the Autumn 
raised and broken by means of a spade, or transplanted, and well 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



41 



mulched with cow-dung, which so greatly assists the ripening of 
the fruit, that the size and flavour are much improved. 

The soil should be made of turf from an old pasture, mixed 
with decayed leaves and well-rotted dung. All runners should 
be taken off, and liquid manure be constantly applied in dry 
weather. 

ON THE GROWTH OF ASPARAGUS. 

In growing asparagus, the first thing necessary is to excavate 
the ground to the depth of four feet; and having made a founda- 
tion of wood-fagots — drains being underneath six feet apart — the 
soil should be capable of receiving and parting with water readily; 
as perfect drainage is of the first consideration. It should be two 
feet in depth, and each bed about four feet in width, and be 
mixed with stable-dung, turf from an old pasture, and sandy 
loam. 

The plants are placed one foot apart each side, the roots being 
well spread out during the month of March, and none should be 
cut until they are well established. In October, cut the stems 
off close to the ground, and cover them with old leaves or rotten 
dung six inches in depth; this may be forked in during the fol- 
lowing spring, and salt and liquid manure supplied every fort- 
night. After the third year, you may cut as much asparagus as 
is needed, following out this treatment, and abstaining from 
earthing up the beds, which renders the plants so hard that the 
tips only can be eaten. 

THE ORCHARD-HOUSE. 

Plan of training fruit-trees on a trellis, under glass, which must 
be regarded as a most needful improvement in horticulture, on 
account of the greater accumulation of heat, and its radiation 
from the ground immediately beneath to the leaves, fruit, and 
branches of api'icots, peaches, &c. — an advantage which Mr. 
Rivers has availed himself of to a very large extent. The trees 
are planted in a slanting direction, and the main stem brought 
up above the trellis ; and to secure the roots from too much 
moisture, the lights may sometimes be drawn down over the 
border, or a good tarpaulin will protect it from heavy rains and 
frosts. Annexed is the plan of a shed erected in Chancellor 
House kitchen-garden for training apricots, peaches, &c., so as 
to render them independent of our uncertain climate. It should 



9 



42 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



be twenty feet in length, receive- four liglits, five feet wide and 
twelve long; and a trellis should be placed in a slanting position 




Soutb Frout Elevation of Shed, or Oroliard-lumse, duvitig the Summer Months. 



fifteen inches below the lights. Strong larch posts support the 
shed, well-charred, three feet above the ground as well as beneath. 



North Section of Shed in Winter. Tlie Lights I'i feet in length, with sheet ghiss, 
whicli I find; the contract for the wood-work and the rest of tlie building being 
18/. 2s. To be comideted in a week. 




Back support, 7 ft. 6 in. Front po.st, 4 ft. (i in. 



N. B. Ground banked up to the dotted line. The upper 
boards, marked A, to be removed ad libitum. The lower ones, 
B, made of oak, to support the soil in the interior. The bars 
of the lights are cut out so as to form the rebates of the 
sash, and they serve for the bars of the trellis. The front 



GLEANINGS ON IIOIiTICUI/rURH 



43 



border should be twelve feet, and the one at the back of tlio 
shed six feet wide, and from three to four feet in depth. The 
small aperture in the front between the lights and the soil, 
marked C, may be closed at any time by means of a board fast- 
ened back by a small chain or bolt. A pathway through the 
door, D, two feet six inches wide, runs up the centre of the shed, 
to enable the gardener to syringe and to disbud the trees ; and 
in the back border are planted dwarf Mahaleb cherries, &c. apricot, 
standard trees, and peaches and pears. They will produce abun- 
dance of fruit of the finest quality, if the soil is composed of 
rotten leaf-mould, road-scrapings, old turf, mortar-rubbish, well 
mixed with night-soil. Liquid manure should also be constantly 
used, and a free current of air allowed, whenever the weather 
will permit. 

Vide Mr. Ballenden Ker's plan of Facilitating the Cultivation 
of the Peach and Nectarines — The Gardeners Chronicle for 1848, 
page 827; and in the Appendix to Mr. River's very useful little 
work, The Miniature Fruit Garden. 

A, back support to plate ; B, front ditto ; C, the tree planted in 
the border; D, the border, six feet drained ; E, the trellis with the 
tree trained on it; F, the glass lights; G, dotted line, shows the 
earth banked up under the trellis, 1 1, the level of the ground ; 
H, the main drain. 




The interior of my orchard-house is very similar to this plan, 
with these slight exceptions : my trellis is fifteen inches below 
the lights, and extends to the top of the shed ; I have a back 
border as well as one in front, and on each side of the pathway 
oak planks support the soil. My house or shed also is higher, 
and the border wider and deeper — as seen in the foregoing sketch 
of the shed at Chancellor House. The addition of moveable 
boards above the borders, and the side planks, I have found to be 
of great efficacy in preventing the cold winds of Spring from in- 
juring the blossoms. 



9 



44 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



In Mr. Ker's plan, the back posts are only four feet six inches 
from the ground, and the front about three feet; /as trellis is 
only two feet six inches from the ground at the back, and one 
foot at the front ; so that it would be difficult for any gardener to 
disbud the trees in it. " Strong posts are (like those in my shed) 
placed in the ground at each corner, and other smaller posts in- 
serted at every two feet at the back and front, and strengthened 
by being united by iron rods ; to these posts are nailed rafters 
every five feet, on a plate two and a half inches by two, to receive 
the lights, as in a hot-bed frame, and these lights (five feet wide 
and twelve feet long) are fixed by screws to the plates." — Vide 
Gardener's Chronicle for 1848, pp. 827 and 843. 

This invention promises to be the beginning of a new era 
in English gardening. A model will be found in the window of 
Mr. Kernan's shop at the corner of Charles-street and Russell- 
street, Covent-garden, and a pattern is in preparation in the 
garden of the Horticultural Society. We all know that the apricot, 
admirable fruit as it is, rarely acquires much excellence here — to 
say nothing of its uncertainty as a crop — owing to our early 
frosts. Nor do we at all see wh}' capital grapes should not be 
had by this plan, without the great expense of hot-houses and 
heating apparatus — Warner's conservatory boiler being excepted. 
This contrivance is also applicable to early cherries — such as the 
Temple Precoce, grafted on Mahaleb stocks — to choice plums — 
the Reine Claude de Bavay, &c., and to a delicate variety of figs. 

STUDS TO BE USED INSTEAD OF NAILS AND SHREDS, THE SHOOTS 
BEING TIED TO THEM WITH CUBA-BAST. 

If you wish to keep your walls in good order, and free from 
insects, and to train your trees at less expense than they can be 
with nails and shreds (the old plan, which will soon be obsolete), 
drive in common cast-iron nails as studs, after they have been 
heated till they are red-hot upon an old shovel, and afterwards 
put into a can of boiling oil — for all corrosion is thus prevented, 
and durability insured. Fan-trained trees require the studs eight 
or nine inches apart in every course of bricks ; but for pear-trees 
trained horizontally, they are sufficiently close in alternate 
courses. A little attention to inserting the studs in straight lines, 
and at regular distances, gives a pleasing appearance to those 
parts of the wall to which the branches have not yet extended 
themselves. The easiest way of proceeding is to procui-e a 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



45 



straight board four and a quarter inches wide, and as long as the 
wall is high. After the first perpendicular row is inserted in the 
alternate courses, one edge of the board is placed against them, 
and a straight line drawn down the other edge as a guide by 
which to drive the second row in triangular order (quincunx 
order), and so on till the work is completed. The upright lines 
should be proved with the plumb-line once in four or five yards, 
in order to prevent any deviation from the perpendicular. The 
shoots must be tied to these studs with Cuba-bast ; and a good 
workman will twist the bast, after it has been dipped in water, 
and tie the shoots in half the time that he would nail them with 
shreds. 

Placing wire trainers or wooden trellis on walls is very 
objectionable ; for the young shoots get behind them, and the 
distance at which the trained shoots are kept from the wall 
deprives them of warmth : and these systems are much more 
expensive. The shoots, also, unless made too fast, are liable to 
become half sawn through, by rubbing continually against the 
wires or trellis. The only situation where they become necessary 
is against the lower part of the flues in hot walls in forcing-houses. 

REMARKS ON WALL-TREES. 

Never cut out or shorten luxuriant shoots if it can be avoided, 
but lay them in, and they will produce bearing-wood the follow- 
ing year, and take care that no shoot be trained perpendicularly. 
This practice will not render the lower part of the peach or 
apricot tree naked. On the contrary, trees suffer much by too 
fi-eely using the knife, (especially the apricot,) except when any 
portion of the inner bark adheres to the alburnum after a circle 
has been made, to render it more productive, though ever so 
small, or the communication will soon be established with the 
root, and no effect will be produced. In about ten days after the 
operation has been performed, the part should be examined, and 
any small portion separated. I have for years had success from 
adopting this practice, and I also attribute it to the galvanized 
iron coping above the trees ; it preserves the bearing shoots from 
frost, and with the use of straw-hurdles and fir-boughs, efl^ec- 
tually protects all the blossom-buds. 

In fig-trees trained against walls, I cut away the old wood, 
when new shoots can be trained in as substitutes from the lower 
extremities of each tree during the winter pruning. The fruit 



46 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



ripens better, and often it is improved by the removal of any 
leaves in its immediate vieinity. It is injudicious to break or 
prune the shoots of the fig-tree, but to render peaches, vines, &c., 
fruitful, I cut through the cortex and liber of the bark, without 
wounding the alburnum, and by so doing, I check the descent of 
the sap, and confine it in the branches above the incision. About 
half-an-inch I find quite sufficient to take off in a circle from any 
vigorous young tree. When the fruit is set in vines, and , the 
berries are the size of small shot, I have recourse to this system, 
and the redundant nutriment passes into the fruit. It is a bad 
plan to crowd vines in a hot-house ; only one cane should be 
planted at each rafter, and the bunches will be larger and more 
certain. Grizzly Frontignac (as I have stated) are better planted 
in a given space within the house as the fluid is then put into 
regular circulation. 

When the blossoms on wall-trees have been exposed to a 
severe night frost; syringe them well with cold water, and the 
flowers will be restored. It is the sudden transition from cold 
to heat which destroys them, and this operation ought therefore 
to be performed before the sun's rays can reach the parts affected. 
This process of watering is also indispensable to the success of 
the fruit ; indeed, the trouble of syringing, or playing upon the 
wall-trees with an engine, is only the labour of an hour each 
morning, and I have been so amply rewarded, that the plan is 
worthy of general regard. 

MANAGEMENT OF TREES IN THE ORCHARD-HOUSE. 

Having built an Orchai'd-house according to directions pre- 
viously given, twenty feet in length by twelve in breadth, two 
trees should be chosen lai-ge enough to cover the trellis, of not 
over-luxuriant growth, and having well-ripened wood. They 
should be planted in November, and the roots should be covered 
with stable-manure and tarpaulin before the severe weather sets 
in, and great care should be taken not to hurt the fibres when 
digging up the trees ; the mould in which they are planted should 
be rich, but not stiff ; the strong shoots must be taken out, and 
the rest spread over the trellis, and be left for a few days untied, 
until they have settled. When the roots begin to work, the 
buds to swell, and the red-dot makes its appearance in the 
flower-buds, the admission of air must be lessened, and the 
light canvass covering will be required to protect the blossoms 



GLl^ANINGS ON IIORTICULTURF.. 



47 



from the heat of the sun. Keep the temperature of the roots, 
externally, by means of hot stable-manure, and the interior of 
the orchard-house, at fifty-five degrees. On a bright day, air 
must be admitted and the lights be shaded: when the peaches 
or apricots have attained the size of a nut, more air will be need- 
ful; the shoots must not be allowed to come in contact with the 
glass. At the period of stoning, much air must be allowed, and 
still more when the fruit is ripening. Canvass covering will now 
be required to prevent the sun's rays from falling perpendicularly 
on trees, and injuring the fruit during the succeeding eight 
days. 

When the roots are denuded of their covering, a plentiful 
supply of liquid manure should be given daily, and the fruit will 
be of a finer flavour than that grown on the wall-trees. The 
latter will retain their health and vigour longer if they are well 
syringed at least twice during each day. 

Warner's conservatory boiler and pipes. 

I have introduced a Warner's conservatory boiler, with four- 
inch hot-water pipes, in order that the trees may enjoy a tempe- 
rature of sixty degrees, until the fruit is set and stoned, after 
which I increase it to sixty-five degrees, by which method the fruit 
will ripen well. The sun-heat may be allowed to raise the ther- 
mometer ten degrees above this temperature, especially after the 
stoning, before it is thought necessary, on account of the steam in 
the house from syringing the pipes, to admit air. The fruit 
begins to ripen, from the introduction of artificial heat, about 
June, and the crop continues to be productive till September, 
when the fruit on the wall-trees is ready in succession. Warner's 
conservatory boiler (price 7/.) is placed at the further end of the 
orchard-house, and the chimney-pipe is carried up in the inside, 
in order that it may give out more heat. 

A tank for water is placed at the opposite end of the orchard- 
bouse, from which, the flow and return pipes and the boiler are 
supplied, and a safety-valve proceeds from it. The small copper 
boiler forms the exterior part of the stove ; the water, when 
attaining boiling heat, is forced through the flow-pipe, which, 
together with the return-pipe, run just beneath the planks which 
su[)port the plants in pots at the south-side of the house; bottom 
heat is communicated thereby to the sand in which the plants 
arc propagated. The foliage of the trees on the trellis and the 



48 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE, 



facility of setting of the fruit are greatly enhanced by steauiing the 
house night and morning from watering the pipes (when the 
water has been boiling some little time) with a syringe. 

Strawberries ripen well on these boards, as well as French 
beans, &c., at an early period of the year. I have two trained 
Moor Park apricots (grafted on apricot stocks) on the trellis; a 
Royal George peach; Noblesse and Violet, T. Octavo ditto ; also 
trained at the back of the house ; six standard apricots (dwarf), 
viz., three large peach-apricots, and three Moor Park apricots; a 
dwarf Marie-Louise pear grafted on a quince stock ; a dwarf 
standard Florence, and a dwarf standard Bigarreau Gros Coeuret 
cherry, grafted on Mahaleb stocks, in my orchard-house. They 
are planted in pots fifteen-inch; i.e., three to a cast; the bottoms 
to the extent of eleven-inches being open, with abundance of 
drainage. 

' The compost. — Two-thirds turfy loam and one-third decom- 
posed manure, to which some road-sand is added ; it should not 
be sifted, and if the loam contains large pieces of turf, the size of 
an egg, so much the better.'— ( Vide Mr. Rivers's treatise, called 
The Orchard House, p. 12.) These trees are planted on the 
opposite side of the pathway in the house to that where the 
pipes run, and I have now abundance of fruit on each tree. 




Warner's Boiler and Pipes. 



GLEANINGS ON IIORTrcULTUUE, 



49 



From this boiler a wroiight-iron pipe rises of about two inches 
in dimension, to a height equal to that which the four-inch cast 
metal-pipes have to rise ; and the water is conveyed from a small 
tank, which contains about a gallon and a-half, into the flow and 
return-pipes and boiler. The tank must be often replenished as 
high as the safety-valve, as shown in the accompanying sketch. 
There is no danger of the pipes bursting, as long as the tank 
contains any water, for the pipes and boiler take about six 
large water-cans to fill them, and the pipes are hei-metically 
sealed. Of all the methods lately invented for heating con- 
servatories, &c., with hot water, there is not one that I know of 
equally useful and reasonable. From the small quantity of Welsh 
coals (by putting on little knobs) that is consumed, this system 
for economy is well deserving of notice ; and I am convinced, 
from practical knowledge, that an invention more important, on 
such simple and safe principles, and adapted to such a variety 
of circumstances, than Warner's conservatory boiler, has not been 
discovered. The water is made to boil in five minutes ; a circu- 
lation takes place in the pipes, which is soon given out in the 
house, and the temperature is maintained for a long period, by 
means of a damper in the chimne}', at nearly a uniform point of 
sixty-five degrees Not being liable to accident and derange- 
ment, as many other principles on which boilers are constructed, 
Warner and Co.'s construction must be pronounced without 
hesitation the acme of perfection. The form of the boiler pre- 
sents the greatest surface to be acted upon by the fire, of which 
the preceding sketch will have given some idea. The exterior 
forms the boiler, and the centre contains a small fire on a grate, 
which is easily let down to be cleaned. 

SYRINGING WITH CAUTION. 

Until the blossoms begin to expand, they should be syringed 
at nine in the morning, and at four, p.m., when the house should 
be shut up for the night, and a regular heat maintained of sixty- 
five degrees temperature, which is of the utmost importance to 
the welfare of the trees, as well as to insure a good crop of fruit. 
The slower the sap is put into motion the stronger will the buds 
break, and the blossoms will consequently be stronger. The 
wood-buds will also push with greater regularity and strength, 
when air is freely admitted. Great caution must be used that 
the temperature of the house be not allowed to exceed sixt3'-five 
degrees, as before mentioned, for the buds will then push weakly, 

D 



50 



GLEANINGS ON liOKTICULTUKE. 



and absolutely fall off. Syringing must neither be carelessly nor 
immoderately done ; for the water should act as dew upon the 
branches and buds to soften them, and to render their breaking 
more regular. Air should be admitted freely to strengthen the 
peach and apricot blossoms ; and steam from syringing the pipes 
will insure their setting, by assisting in the dispersion of the 
farina (or male fertilizing dust of the anthers) upon the female 
organs ; and during this period, while the blossoms are out, the 
house should be steamed, as it cannot be syringed. Any quantity 
of water, either at the roots or over the branches, would injure 
the delicate parts of the fructification, and a dry, close atmo- 
sphere would be equally injurious. Steaming keeps the plant in 
vigour, and strengthens the bloom until the fruit is set, which 
will be known by its appearing like a small swelling at the base 
of the style or female organ. A few days' allowance must be 
made for such parts of the trees as are remote from the glass to 
set their blossoms, and then the application of the syringe should 
be again had recourse to, by degrees, like small rain, but after- 
wards with some force to displace the remains of the decayed 
bloom and insects, which will be sure to make their appearance 
before the leaves have attained half their size. 

The red-spider will be kept under by syringing the leaves 
right and left; and if it should make its appearance, it will be 
an evident sign of a deficiency of that operation. The green-fly 
may readily be destroyed by fumigating with Brown's patent 
or Timer's improved Fumigator at least twice during each week, 
from the time the first wood-buds break into leaf, until the leaves 
have attained their full size, and the tips of the shoots have 
become rather hard and strong. When the young fruit has 
attained the size of peas, the process of disbudding should be 
attended to, but no thinning of the fruit should take place at 
present. Water must now never be given to the roots until the 
fruit have formed their stones, as they would drop off by any 
unnecessary moisture, except liquid manure, which should be 
moderately poured on the mulching about once during the week. 
In the orchard-house, steam from syringing the pipes will at this 
period be sufficient, till the stoning of the fruit has been accom- 
plished, when water may be given abundantly, both at the roots 
and over the leaves. 

Thinning the fruit on healthy trees, to the distance of six 
inches apart, is very desirable where fine peaches or apricots are 
an object. No leaves should be picked off them at this time, as 



GLEANINGS ON IIORTrCULTUIlE. 



51 



the fruit will swell much better when partially shaded with them ; 
and two fruits should not remain on a shoot that is not considered 
sufficiently strong to bring them to perfection. Syringe before 
the sun acts too powerfully with considerable force, and the last 
thing at night, so that the water may remain the longer on the 
trees. Prune and train in the young shoots, and remove laterals. 
Fire heat may be dispensed with when the thermometer ranges 
sixty degrees, but it should not be withdrawn suddenly. In dull 
and cloudy weather it will be necessary, and also in the evenings, 
if enough heat has not been imparted by the sun ; for if the fruit 
experience a check at this stage of their growth, it will affect 
their swelling to a full size. 

Should the frosts be over, remove the mulching from the bor- 
ders and the tarpaulin, and discontinue the application of liquid 
manure as soon as the stoning season is over. The fumigation 
of tobacco should be continued, and the aphides eradicated before 
the fruit begins to swell for ripening, when it must altogether 
cease. When the fruit is approaching to maturity, give all the air 
possible, but cover the house in rain, as that would be highly 
injurious ; and syringing must be left off. The leaves which now 
shade the fruit should be displaced, to present the full exposure 
to the sun, leaving about an inch of the leaf, together with the 
foot-stalk, which may mature the bud at the base. The sashes 
may be removed from the roof, if they can be immediately re- 
placed in case of rain. 

Nets should be suspended under the trees, to catch the fruit 
which fall when ripe ; but if allowed to do so, it is much injured 
in its flavour, and should therefore be gathered by the hand. 
When gathered, it should be carried to the fruit-room, and 
packed upon clean paper. Peaches may be beautifully coloured 
or spotted, by sprinkling them with drops of water when the sun 
is shining upon them ; and the sashes being removed during dry 
days, greatly improves their flavour, until they are finally taken 
away when the fruit is all gathered. The apricot and peach-trees 
should then have a liberal supply of water on their branches and 
over their roots — the former hy means of the syringe, applying 
the water with force, for the suppression of the red-spider and 
for refreshing the trees. As the leaves ripen, they should be 
gently brushed off, to admit the air and the sun to the branches, 
in order that they may be sufficiently matured for next year's 
forcing. Water must not be given too plentifully, or the shoots 
will spring into a second growth. 



52 



Gl.EANINGS ON HOK'nCULTUKE. 



Standard fig-trees will thrive well in the orchard-house, if 
planted in pots similar to those used for apricots and peaches 
with holes at the bottom. 

ON GROWING MUSHROOMS, 

When a melon-bed is prepared for the plants, sow the mush- 
room spawn on the sides of the hills, and on the surface of the 
bed ; and when the melons are over, and the bine is decayed, 
put on the hghts, and keep them close, taking care to water the 
mould moderately when it becomes dry, or expose it to any gentle 
shower, for too much wet will destroy the spawn. At the period 
the bed is taken away, procure and dry the s})awn against the 
return of Spring. The roots of the melons will not be in the 
least injured ; and the catsup obtained from these nmshrooms is 
far superior to any other, being high-coloured and of finer 
flavour. 

CONCRETE GARDEN- WALKS. 

In the first place, break up your old gravel-walk, and if the 
foundation be good, put on a quantity of lime, about an inch 
thick ; then replace the coarse part of the gravel, after it has been 
sifted, to the thickness of two inches, and a rise in the centre 
of three inches ; then finish by one inch of the fine-sifted gravel 
— roll it well, and you will have no more trouble with weeds. 
This simple plan I have adopted in our flower garden, and it has 
answered far beyond my expectation. When made, the weather 
should be dry; and although the frost may have some effect upon 
these ivalks, and loosen the surface in a slight degree, yet the 
roller will soon make them as firm as Roman cement. 

A foundation of broken stones is the best — well drained ; and 
even should the walks or roads be much used by wagons or 
carts, if t/te sfo/ies be small, the wheels will make no impression. 
Storms have no effect upon these roads or walks, as long as 
they are kept well rolled and drained ; and nothing can be 
cheaper. I used fresh slacked lime, and when required, watered 
it prior to the two inches of rather coarse gravel being put on the 
walks ; the roller was then immediately passed over them, the 
lime then rose amcmgst the round stones in the gravel, and set 
them firmly in their proper level, prior to the fine gravel being 
finally placed upon the walks, which will not require anything 
more than an inch of the latter for the next five years. 



GLEANINGS ON lIORTICUI/riJKE. 



53 



MELONS AND CUCUMBERS. 

My melon and encumber-frames, in size and appearances, are 
similar to the orchard-house ; the same Warner's conservatory 
boiler and additional four-inch pipes supply the bottom-heat. 
Dimensions, twenty feet in length — ^lights twelve feet. Planks 
are placed over the flow and return-pipes, and the melons or 
cucumbers are steamed daily by syringing the pipes. 

The essential part to attend to is the keeping up constant 
humidity, and the red-spider will never appear, or even the 
thrips. Cucumbers require more steaming than melons. 



GROUND PLAN. 




1. The borders raised on planks over tbe four inch pipes to the top of the exterior 

ground. 

2. The centre walk. 

3. Cast metal water tanks to supply the pipes. 

The outside walls at the back six feet snuk considerably below the level of the soil, 
and about four feet high in front. 



ON TRAINING FRUIT-TREES. 

The curvilinear, wavy, or drooping fan-shape, are decidedly 
the best methods of training peaches, apricots, plums, and pear- 
trees against walls ; each extremity of the trees should turn 
upwards, or be pendulous. Lay the branches in regularly, 
avoiding crossing any of them, and observe that each side ranges 
in the same manner and position : — 



54 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 




Pear Tree, drooping shape. 




Apricot, wavy fan Shape. — Seymour's pruning-. 



Bj these improved methods of traimng, the greatest degree of 
control is attained over the circulation of the sap, which being 
checked at the terminal points, is sent back to the bearing or 
blossom-buds, and ensures their fruitfulness. These plans, and 
the curvilinear on the ensuing page, are excellent. The trees 
should have some protection, and even fixing old shop-windows 
before them during the months of February, March, and April, 
I can highly recommend as being most useful. 



GLEANINGS ON HOUTICULTUUE. 



55 



INSECTS AND SYRINGING. 

When the young wood-bud appears on peaches, &c., the 
aphides will accompany it, and the mischief committed is great, 
often before a recipe is applied, particularly to the lower parts of 
the tree, which is the cause of so much barren wood in succes- 
sive years. Apply tobacco-liquid as soon as the stamens and 
pistils have performed their office, and you will not then injure 
the ensuing crop; but if the development of the blossoms is still 
going on, they will not endure this treatment. 

ON MR. Seymour's system. 

It is of the utmost importance to see if there be any existing 
vacancy, or any probability of it, on the lower part of the tree; 
a good shoot should then be trained in at full length, or short- 
ened to a few eyes, to force out as many shoots as may seem 
necessary, and due precaution is therefore requisite to have a 
sufficient stock of young wood. As pruning goes on, take care 
to have the branches re-nailed as soon as possible. 




Peach Tree, or Nectarine, traiued in Seymour's Curvilinear lucliuatiou. 

This method is most popular, and has many advantages; but 
it w^ould be difficult, in training the peach, to carry this to any 
extent ; the ends of the leading branches are elevated, so that 
they may all form the same curvilinear inclination with the 
horizon, which is of paramount importance in the training of 
peaches and nectarines. " Commencing with the winter pruning. 



56 



GLEANINGS ON IJORTlCUl/lHitE, 



ihe first rule to be laid down as a basis of all the rest, is to 
shorten every shoot in proportion to its strength, and to prune 
to where the wood is firm and well-i"ipened ; this will cause all 
the pithy and unripened wood to be removed, thence causing a 
supply of that which is better ripened for the ensuing year. But, 
in order to give every facility to the ripening of the wood, it must 
be trained thin, not in profusion, according to the general custom, 
but such shoots only as may be rec^uired for the following year. 
Trees which have arrived at a bearing state should have their 
strongest branches shortened to twelve or fourteen inches, those 
next in strength to eight or ten, and the weaker ones to four or 
six inches, pruning each to what is termed a treble eye, or that 
where there is a blossom-bud on each side of a wood-bud ; where 
bi'anches are not in a bearing state, these treble eyes will not be 
found ; they must therefore be pruned to a wood-bud alone, 
which is always known by its sharp point. When the trees have 
been pruned once in this manner, the shoots must be trained 
neatly, nearly parallel to each other, so that a line continued in 
that direction would lead itself clearly out to the extremity of the 
tree." — D?: G. Lindley in his " Guide to the Orchard," &c., p. 302. 

Never crop the border, add no manure, keep the trees clean 
and healthy by syringing with tobacco-water, and elevate the 
ends of the leading branches so that they may form the same 
curvilinear inclination with the horizon. 

RASPBERRIES. 

The large-fruited monthly raspberry requires a rich soil, and 
to be cut down within three inches of its roots when planted, and 
it is most prolific. 

STRAWBERRIES. 

I have (through God's blessing) had such success in the culti- 
vation of strawberries, that I should be glad to hear of all my 
horticultural friends being similarly prosperous in obtaining 
good crops annually of such agreeable and wholesome fruit as 
strawberries, both in a medicinal and palatable point of view : in 
the former they are little inferior to water-creases; and, in the 
latter, when gathered from the beds ad libitum in the morning, 
and in the preserved state, few, if any fruit, excel them. 

In the early spring, my young friends are pleased to call our 
" Strawberry" the " Paradise-gardens," and the enjoyment' that 



GLEANINGS ON IIOKTICULT URli. 



57 



is thus aftbrdcd them amply repays mc for the trouble and 
expense which attend their proHfic cultivation. I invariably 
plant a new bed of each sort annually, and select the first 
runners for that purpose. Early in the Autumn, I mulch them 
well round the crowns, and down each row, with rotten dung 
and decayed leaves ; and for three years successively they repay 
me by most abundant crops of fruit. But their successful culture 
depends upon the plants being well watered during dry weather, 
particularly when in flower. 

One of my friends cautioned me not to do so, but I persisted, 
and the consequence was, that my blossoms set and that he was 
not equally fortunate. A change of ground is certainly required 
to produce British-queens the size of eggs every three years, 
although the rows are two feet apart, and every plant one foot 
from each other, and no runners are allowed to grow unless 
required to form new beds; the roots of each plant are also 
broken every Autumn by being raised with a spade and replaced. 
I pursue the old method of putting clean wheat straw between 
the rows and underneath it : when laid down, sprinkle some lime 
and soot to destroy the grubs and snails. Mice I catch by 
the tile-traps between each row, baited with long-pod beans. 
The fruit enjoy a free circulation of air, attain a high flavour, 
and are gathered at all times with facility, being perfectly freed 
from weeds and runners. British-queens force well if they are 
planted in No. 48 sized pots, and the soil (a good loam from an 
old pasture) be beaten down as hard as possible. An abundant 
supply of liquid manure and bottom-heat are the two requisites 
to ensure an abundant crop. Should air be given freely, the 
size of the fruit will assimilate to hen's eggs, and be perfectly 
ripened at the sharp end. 



GLEANINGS ON HOliTICULTURE. 



FIG-TREE. 

The figure represents a shoot of last year. 
The first figs were pi-oduced on the wood of" 
the previous year (which is not shown). The 
first growth, previous to Midsummer, extends 
up to A ; at the joints B B B a second crop 
was formed and immediately removed, and 
other embryos are now formed below at C. 
From A to J) is the second shoot, showing figs 
for the first crop of next season. Thus along 
the whole growth of last year figs are brought 
to perfection. Whenever a branch is too 
luxuriant, press it between the finger and 
thumb till its soft cellular substance has 
yielded. 

In pruning figs, I take out the old naked 
wood, but invariably lay in all the young 
shoots that come from the lower extremities 
of the tree, whether they will nail to the wall 
or not; for if the knife is used freely, to bring 
the tree into shape, it will be destitute of 
fruit, and the bearing branches will die back. 
The first figs that appear are those that 
will ripen, the second crop will not have suf- 
B ficient heat of the sun in this northern lati- 
Q tude to bring them to maturity, excepting 
under glass in the orchard-house, where they 
succeed remarkably well. Short-jointed and 
well-ripened wood, trained after the curvi- 
linear shape, will not fail to produce an 
abundant crop, when nothing else is allowed 
to grow on the border, and some rotten dung 
has been forked in as manure. 
J I take off the figs which are produced 
after Midsummer, in order that the young 
ones should grow there, which will form fruit 
the following Autumn that will ripen. The 
embryo is then formed at the base, as shown 
in the adjoining figure. 



OLEANINOS ON UOUTICULTUllK. 



59 



FUMIGATION FOR DESTRUCTION OF THE RED SPIDER IN A 
HOTHOUSE THIRTY FEET LONG AND SIXTEEN WIDE. 

Six ounces of flower of sulphur are sufficient for one fumi- 
gation. The best mode of proceeding is to dissolve a lump 
of soft soap, about the size of a walnut, in warm water, adding 
to this some clay-water, made by working a lump of clay in 
warm water until it becomes of the thickness of thin paint, and 
then mix in the sulphur. When all are well blended together, 
apply the mixture by means of a brush upon the sides of the flue ; 
this must have been previously heated. The best time to apply 
it is late in the afternoon, just previously to closing the house 
for the night. 

FUMIGATION TO DESTROY GREEN-FLY AND TURIPS. 

" According to the size of the place to be fumigated, one or 
more pieces of cast iron, one inch thick and three inches over, 
are made red-hot — placed in No. 24 sized iron pots, on which 
is put the tobacco — one pound of which is sufficient for three 
heaters, in equal parts. The tobacco is so quickly consumed, 
that the house is completely filled in a very short time, and 
but little smoke can escape before the insects are destroyed. 
The pure heat from the iron heaters prevents injury from gas ; 
and as no blowing is required, there is no dust, it being only 
necessary to put the tobacco on the heaters, and leave the 
house." — Vide Gardener's Chronicle. 

RECEIPT TO DESTROY APHIDES. 

Syringe with tobacco-water two consecutive evenings — and 
strong shag tabacco is the best for this purpose. Three-quarters 
of a pound to a gallon of hot water makes a liquid perfectW 
efficient. It is applied with a hand-syringe ; and the operator, 
after battering them one way to the end of the wall, returns and 
batters them again the reverse way — by which means, scarcely 
a leaf is missed. My trees are covered with canvass, projecting 
from galvanized iron coping ; and I choose a dry evening for the 
operation, applying the mixture about six o'clock, p.m., and 
drawing down the canvass soon after the operation, and remov- 
ing it the next day in case of sunshine or rain, in order that the 
effects of the liquid may not be too soon dissipated. 



60 GLEANINGS ON IIORTICULTURK. 

INSECTS. 

The scale is a most serious pest to the apricot ; the eggs will 
be found in February on the old stems, just beginning to enlarge 
preparatory to their hatching into caterpillars: unless they are 
destroyed, they will make their debiat with the young leaf, which 
they so mutilate and roll up as to damage the crop, and paralyse 
the tree. Soft soap, lime, and sulphur-dressing, as applied to 
peaches, will annihilate them if often repeated. 

SULPHUR PAINT. 

Beat up three ounces of soft soap with each gallon of tepid 
water; add four handsful of flower of sulphur, and some soot to 
subdue the tone of the colouring imparted, and some thick clay- 
water, making the whole the consistence of ordinary paint. Let 
this be applied by a brush to every space between the shoots, and 
if a little should touch the shoots, it will not harm them. This 
receipt destroys the scale of the narrow-winged red-bar moth, 
the poedisca angustiorana, and the American blight on apple- 
trees. 

RECEIPT TO DESTROY THE RED-SPIDER. 

Equal quantities of sulphur vivum, Scotch snulF, and slacked 
lime sifted fine ; half the quantity of lamp-black, to be mixed 
with soft soap and urine till it becomes the consistency of paint. 
Before the sap rises, the old wood and young shoots should be 
dressed with a painter's brush. 

ANOTHER RECEIPT TO DESTROY THE RED-SPIDER. 

Should this pest attack the peach, nectarine, or apricot, soon 
after the leaf is expanded, sulphur is the sure remedy, for copious 
ablutions from the syringe are prejudicial. The sulphur should 
be blended with clay-water, made by well-kneading a lump of 
clay until it is entirely dissolved : to this add soft soap, and a 
pint of soot to a gallon of water, and apply this mixture with a 
painter's brush. — ErringtorCs. 

RECEIPT TO DESTROY THE GREEN-FLY. 

To prevent these infestive insects, the following mode will 
prove very successful: — Heat a plate of iron red-hot, then place 



GLEANINGS ON lIOliTlC'UI/rUUK. 



61 



a small quantity of cayenne pepper upon it, and close the house. 
The pepper will not injure the most tender plant, and it not only 
destroys the green-fly, but keeps the house free from slugs. 

RECEIPT FOR DESTROYING INSECTS ON PEACH-TREES, &C. 

Two pounds of shag tobacco to a gallon of water ; three gallons 
of soap-suds — the latter not very strong — add a quart of water, 
in which six ounces of shag tobacco have been soaked ; strain the 
liquor through a fine sieve, and squeeze the material to extract 
the whole of its qualities. Keep the liquor covered for a day or 
night previous to use, and try a little a night beforehand, to be 
sure that it will kill the insects without injuring the trees. A 
fine afternoon is the best time for the operation, and syringe the 
trees right and left, just prior to the canvass covering being let 
down for the night. 



While sitting under our vines and fig-trees, gratefully enjoying 
the bounties of Providence, let us reflect on things deeply inter- 
esting and instructive ; such as God's revelation of his mind and 
will to man, through the glorious redemption by Jesus Christ. 
How precious is this free gift to all, as viewed through the 
blessed Gospel ! To embrace it is life eternal to every penitent 
believer. It is to him a subject of universal enjoyment ; he ex- 
periences that peace and love which arise from his sole trust in 
Christ's justifying righteousness, and not in any merit of his 
own. Salvation by grace alone, and free pardon of all our sins 
on these gracious terms, should be gladly accepted by all. Ordi- 
nances and everything else are valueless, without the knowledge 
of the truth as it is in Jesus. Our Heavenly Father will then 
bless all our undertakings, strengthen us by the aid of his Holy 
Spirit, guide us in every season of perplexity, and succour us 
when tempted, as weary pilgrims on the road to Zion, until we 
reach our promised rest. 

It is always interesting to read those verses from the first 
to the eighth of the fifteenth chapter of St. John's Gospel, 
in which our union to our blessed Lord is likened to a vine- 
branch, which, unless it is fruitful, is cut away. And except 
by pruning, how destitute are we of his Spirit and grace ! 
Until God exercise his kind discipline towards believers, they 
do not act conformably to His blessed will ; and separated 
from Him, we are, indeed, worse than nothing. 

The following plans show the way in which the hot-houses 
are constructed at RoUeston Hall : 



62 



GLEANINGS ON HORTICULTURE. 



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Section, in length, 30 ft. ench house, 
three 8 ft. lights, or (10 ft. long by 34 ft. 



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GLEANTNGS ON UORTIOUI.TUHE. (iS 
GROUND-PLAN OF HEATED VINE-BORDER AT ROI.LESTON HALL. 



9 INCH WALLS. OUTSIDE 



SPACE.- BET 



rtUES M INCHES INSIDE BY BIN HEIGHT 



rtUES IN THE HOTHOUSE 



f 



Interior of botbouse, forty-five feet long by 
fifteen feet in breadtb ; iron grating being placed 
over tbe flues, to walk ui)on. 



Vine border, forty-five feet in length by tvrenty- 
five feetin breadtb, forming a warm-air chamber un- 
derneath, supported by alone slabs from Yorkshire, 
raised by open brickwork, on which the slabs rest ; 
the chamber being well ventilated. Wall between 
the hothouse and border on arches. 




I 



FLOWER BASKETS. 



Flower-baslcet made of old trees is a beautiful receptacle for flowers — of an octagonal 
shape, five feet in diameter, and fourteen iuclies deep, makes a stand of very good 
proportions. Four Nierembergia, trailing Lobelias five, blue Anagallise two, Mau- 
randyas three, and behind these four Verbenas, eight Tom Thumbs, about five Petunias, 
three yellow Calceolaria, and two Heliotropes — a tasteful group. 

THE FIRST DESIGN IN THE PLACE OF THE TOROLOSA CUFRESSA. 




SECOND DF:SIGN for FLOWER-BASKET OPPOSITE DRAWING- 
ROOM WINDOW. 




Place the bark carefully outwards, and relieve it by nailing pieces of old rope over 
it in various ways for embellishment. These baskets are well calculated for growing 
plants in where dogs abound. Fill it with rich mould, and place the taller flowering 
plants in the middle, and procumbent ones outside, to hang down in four graceful 
festoons. 




E 



66 



CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS. 

Having now acceded to youi" wishes, and to those of my 
friends, and having brought my " Gleanings on Horticulture" to 
a close, I cannot dismiss the subject without expressing an 
earnest hope that the Divine blessing may attend my weak 
efforts to make the labours of my friends in this pursuit inter- 
esting and profitable, and the means of leading their minds 
from these familiar objects to Him who has so lavishly furnished 
them for the sustenance and enjoyment of his creatures. 

" Not to regard the works of the Lord, nor the operations of 
his hands" is to manifest a degree of insensibility to his creative 
wisdom, power, and goodness, with which He is righteously dis- 
pleased: and, on the other hand, to trace his footsteps in the 
garden, to see how beautifully his skill is developed in every tree, 
" from the cedar of Lebanon, to the hyssop that springeth out of 
the wall," with all their variety of fruit and foliage, and from the 
loftiest to the lowliest flowers, is to show a grateful reverence 
for Him who " openeth his hand and satisfieth the wants of 
every living thing;" "who makest the outgoings of the morning 
and the evening to rejoice ;" who visitest the earth and waterest 
it;" "makest it soft with showers, and blessest the springing 
thereof ;" " who crowneth the year with his goodness, and his 
paths drop fatness." 

In the narrative of the redemption of man, as well as in the 
works of creation, our attention is frequently excited and 
enlivened by a reference to the same topics so interesting to 
horticulturists. It was during the mysterious humiliation of 
our adorable Redeemer, that He said to one whose devotions in 
the garden were known to Him — " When thou wast under the 
fig-tree, I saw thee" — and to all his faithful disciples, he thus 
announces Himself — " I am the vine, ye are the branches," " as 
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine; 
no more can ye, except ye abide in me." 

The care He bestows upon his suffering people is beautifully 
manifested when he says, in language so touching and encou- 
raging — " Consider the lilies how they grow, they toil not, they 
spin not ; and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory 
was not arrayed like one of these." And in that future state, 
the circumstances and glory of which are but imperfectly dis- 



CONCLUDING REKLKCTIONS. C? 

closed to us, we are taught to anticipate a scene in which there 
".wjU be " a pure river of water of hfe, clear as crystal, proceedmg 
out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb, and, on either 
side of the river, the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of 
fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the 
tree were for the healing of the nations." 

' Loiik to the lilies, how they grow !' 

'Twas thus the Saviour said, that we, 
Even in the simplest flowers that blow, 

God's ever watchful care might see. 

Yes ! nought escapes the guardian eye — 

However vast, however small — 
Of Him who lists the raven's cry. 

And marks from heaven the sparrov\''s fall. 

Why mourn we, then, for those we love. 

As if all hope was reft away ? 
Let not our sorrowing hearts refuse 

Meekly to bend, and to obey. 

Shall He, who paints the lily's leaf. 

Who gives the rose its scented breath, 
Love all His works, e.\cept the chief, 

And leave His image, Man, to death ? 

No ! other hearts and hopes be ours. 

And to our souls let faith be given, 
To feel our lost friends only flowers, 

Transplanted from this world to heaven 



THE END. 



